INTERVIEW | Iván García Cortina is more ambitious than ever for 2025: "I would like to win the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix"

The presentation of Movistar Team for the 2025 season breathed excitement for a year in which there will finally be no worries about relegation. CiclismoAlDia was on the ground in Madrid and talked to Ivan García Cortina, who will be the Spanish team's leader for this upcoming classics season.

The 29-year-old rider will start his fifth season with the Movistar jersey, which will debut a new design in 2025. Cortina is a rider who has always done very well in one-day races. With the departure of Oier Lazkano and Alex Aranburu, his presence as a leading figure for the team grows in importance. He allows himself to dream of victory in a monument like the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix," revealing very high ambitions into 2025. 

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Question: How are you feeling before the start of the season and what are your feelings for 2025?

Answer: "I'm really looking forward to it. Let's see if it turns out to be a good year, and I'm ready for everything".

Q: Last year you had a great Tour of Flanders. Thinking about the cobbled classics, do you think you will be able to maintain the good level this year?

A: "I hope, that's the idea. Last year I had a risky move. I didn't do all the classics or the Volta a Catalunya to change direction a bit. It didn't go badly because in the end I arrived very well at the Tour of Flanders. But it's true that I hypothesized all the others. This year I think I'll go back to the traditional calendar so I can go to the rest of the classics as well. You get one right and you get a lot of points. In the end it would be a great result in races that I like. What is clear is that the sensations are very good for the year we are in. We're looking forward to it, so let's hope it goes well. Obviously the classics are the races I like the most. Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix would be a dream".

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Q: Moving on to the general level. The danger of relegation is fortunately no longer something that worries you at Movistar for 2025. How do you see the team mentally?

A: "The truth is that this year we are making an important change. It has been seen in the training camp. There is more ambition, more commitment from the whole group, more unity.... We are working hard on those aspects. I think it is something very important because I think that it had been left a little out of hand in a team with 40 years of history. It is normal for that reason to go through many phases. That's why we have to try to unite the whole team. Going all together as one can be noticed on the asphalt".

Q: Finally, I would like to ask you about Enric Mas, who has confirmed that he will go to the Vuelta. Do you think he will be able to win it in 2025?

A: "I wish. It's difficult to win it, of course. But it's a race that suits him very well. Every year it's there. It's a life insurance. So if things work out for him and the circumstances are right, he can definitely do it."

Original: Jorge P. Borreguero

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