Movistar rider knows of weaknesses in Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard's arsenal: "They're better than the others at many things, but not everything"

Nelson Oliveira is the brand image of the Spanish Movistar Team. He's the oldest member of the team led by Eusebio Unzué and he's like Port wine. "The years go by and the numbers go up," he says in a recent interview discussing his long-standing reign at World Tour level.

"I notice the passage of time with my companions; some go and others come. We get to the table and there are only two or three of us here since I started. Time goes by and we notice. They treat me like family here, they're happy with me," Oliveira said in an interview with TopCycling. "For now I see myself racing because I'm physically well, I feel like training, I have the responsibility to train every day. Probably more than I had when I was younger. The age is different, the responsibility is different, maybe the fear of failure is different too. I try to give everything in training so that this fear doesn't become a reality."

The Spanish team has renewed its contract with its main sponsor until 2029, but the financial strength is no longer the same as it once was, to compete against millionaire teams like UAE Team Emirates - XRG, Team Visma | Lease a Bike or the more recent Red Bull- BORA hansgrohe. "Cycling has evolved a lot, and so has the way we race and train. There are always aspects we have to improve. A few years ago we didn't eat what we eat now, in other words, there was a different philosophy about nutrition in racing, in training. Nutritionally we've evolved, there's more energy in the body and that's reflected in the numbers. Over the last four years my numbers haven't got any worse, I've kept up, it's to do with work, diet and discipline."

Nelson Oliveira will start the season in Portugal, at the Figueira Champions Classic, but later on he'll join Enric Mas, the leader of the team whose main goal is the Tour de France, where he failed in 2024. "He'll probably prepare for the Tour in a different way. The stress you experience at the Tour is different to the stress you experience at the Vuelta. The media coverage is different, it could probably affect him or not, I can't say. He's maintained his performance, he has room for improvement and he could evolve in some aspects because in cycling, improving one percent is already a lot. In the Tour you already know, between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard there'll be fireworks everywhere, when they're both there it's to see who gets 3rd more or less."

You mentioned Pogacar and Vingegaard, who have been battling each other for the Tour de France throne in recent years, so the question will have to be asked. What do they have that their rivals lack to try to match them? "It's the training method, the physiognomy, the DNA. They're better than the others at many things, but not everything. You put Vingegaard in a one-day time trial and he doesn't do as well as he does in a grand tour. Pogacar isn't going to win a time trial at the World Championships either... until I see. Next to Ganna or Remco he's a favorite, but not like in the Tour."

The veteran is going into his 10th season with Movistar, as mentioned, but he has numbers that are sometimes overlooked by the less attentive. He has already taken part in 21 Grand Tours in his career and is the active cyclist who has gone the longest without abandoning a race: 208. So what's the secret, what's the recipe for such a record? "There's no recipe. It's about not having bad luck, knowing what you're doing and moving on without thinking too much about it. I haven't had any bad luck to the point of dropping out."