Analysis: Movistar Team sinks into mediocrity in the UCI rankings

After a more than quiet Vuelta a Espana, Movistar Team has not managed to gain too many points and its position in the UCI ranking continues to be disappointing. It is true that the Navarre team is not suffering for the moment from a possible relegation and that the signings made (Fernando Gaviria, Rúben Guerreiro) have worked minimally enough to give them some peace of mind in the standings. But nothing more. A certain tranquility, but the team continues in no man's land.

At the moment it is more than 17,000 points from the lead held by UAE Team Emirates followed closely by Jumbo-Visma. The border with the relegation marked by Team Arkéa-Samsic is more than 4000 points away so, as we say, at this time in that sense Eusebio Unzué's team should be calm.

Quiet, yes, but within an immense mediocrity. They are the 12th team at the moment, very close to EF Education-EasyPost. However, they have teams in their league like BORA-hansgrohe, Alpecin-Deceuninck or Groupama-FDJ far behind. Even Lotto Dstny, which is not WorldTour, has more than 2000 points more. Far behind are squads like Lidl-Trek, Bahrain Victorious, Soudal Quick-Step or INEOS. The team are not in their league, it is in the league of Cofidis, Jayco-AlUla, Intermarché, Israel or AG2R.

It's clear that betting half the season that Enric Mas will be able to make top 5 in the Tour de France and podium in the Vuelta a España and that the Mallorcan rider ends up abandoning in France and in the Spanish race he doesn't get better than sixth place doesn't help. Nor that your best scoring rider, Matteo Jorgenson, signs for another team and you don't take him to the Vuelta and you don't take advantage of him as you should have during the year.

The 'big' signings of the year, Ruben Guerreiro and Fernando Gaviria, have served to improve the team a little, but not to be competitive in important races. Movistar has consolidated itself in mediocrity with its movements, with its race strategies and with its lack of a more ambitious plan beyond the retirement of Alejandro Valverde.