Carlos Verona on Enric Mas: "Enric has shown that he can lead the team and we will focus on the Tour and La Vuelta"

Carlos Verona is currently racing with Movistar Team in the Tour of Oman after debuting this season in the Middle East with a top10 in the Muscat Classic.

The rider from Madrid has given an interview to the colleagues of the newspaper AS in which he talked about how the team is ready to take over from Alejandro Valverde with Enric Mas as the new sole leader: "Already without the Bala (Alejandro Valverde, ed.), Enric has shown that he can lead the team and we will focus on the Tour and La Vuelta with him. There are only three Grand Tours a year, the calendar is very long and we have a well-balanced squad for different fronts."

Read also

PREVIEW | Tour of Oman 2023 stage 2 - Climbers go heat-to-head on explosive hilltop finish

Verona makes it very clear that his main objective in 2023 will be to be Enric Mas's luxury teammate in a year in which Movistar Team will go all out in both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España with the Mallorcan:

"The main objective will be to be at 200% with Enric Mas. He has to make us think that he can not only opt for a podium in the Tour or in La Vuelta, he has to opt to win it, and we will fight with him for it. In that respect I obviously won't be thinking about myself," he continued.

Read also

"Cian Uijtdebroeks is being compared to me. That remains very strange" - Remco Evenepoel admits bad feelings towards continuous comparisons

Although he admits he will work for Mas in the big races, he also hopes to have opportunities to shine in one-week races. The talented climber talks about the calendar he has in mind to face after the Tour of Oman:

"After Oman I'll be in Andorra doing altitude before Tirreno and then the Volta a Catalunya, a race I've never missed and that I love. Later, we'll see how I feel," he concluded.

Read also

Preliminary startlist Volta ao Algarve with Jakobsen, Démare, Ganna, Pidcock, Hindley, Almeida and Vine

Preliminary startlist Vuelta a Andalucia with Pogacar, Mas, Landa, Hart, Woods and Guerreiro