"I agree with that situation" - Iván García Cortina pushed away from Grand Tours to chase points for desperate Movistar
CyclingTuesday, 16 August 2022 at 10:00
Iván García Cortina will not be racing a Grand Tour this year, but instead in the last months of the season he will be part of Movistar Team's plan to secure maintenance at World Tour level, as he explained in a recent interview.
“It's more logical. It doesn't make sense to go to a Vuelta where you get 10 points for winning a stage and, if I make it to the podium in Canada, it's almost the same points as finishing in the Top 10 overall”, Cortina told Marca. Although his statement is largely exaggerated, the UCI points ranking benefits more those looking to perform on one-day races, where the amount of points available is very significant when it takes into account how it is only one race day.
“The normal thing, in this situation, is that I didn't do LaVuelta. I agree with that situation. The issue of points is something that went unnoticed until this year. Almost no one remembered the points and now it is a very important part," he explained. Movistar currently sit in 18th place, 500 points ahead of Lotto Soudal. A meaningful buffer, however one that the Belgian team can close if they have a very strong end of the season, largely boosted by the hefty amount of classics.
Movistar will be searching those points in several fields, but will need a strong Vuelta a Espana to stay afloat. Enric Mas will be leading the team, and if he could repeat last year's second place it would add 680 points to the team's tally. Mas has suffered heavily with crashes throughout the year however, as Cortina details: “In the end, a series of misfortunes have taken away points that we had won, such as those of Tirreno or Itzulia with Enric Mas. We are going to achieve it because I am sure they will have a great Vuelta and I will also get points on my calendar".
"Experiencing a relegation would be very complicated, but I think we'll save ourselves. Movistar is not in the position it deserves". A big effort will be necessary late in the year from several riders to be able to remain at World Tour level, with a team that is seeing Alejandro Valverde retire at the end of the season and has not yet announced a replacement that will bring in as many results as the veteran does.
Together with Alex Aranburu and Gonzalo Serrano the Spanish trio will be looking to thrive away from the Vuelta. Cortina said that he'll race the Tour du Limousin, BEMER Cyclassics, Bretagne Classic and the Canadian classics. If he's on his best form, the Spaniard could well be an outsider for the World championships aswell.
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