Movistar Team | Inside the launch of the new season of “El Día Menos Pensado”

At Movistar Team, the seeds of change have been growing for several years. The new generation of riders led by Ivan Romeo, Javier Romo, Carlos Canal, Jon Barrenetxea and Pablo Castrillo deserved to see El Día Menos Pensado – the documentary series linked to the team over the past five years – return after a two-year break.

Season five is now available to all Movistar+ users. From Monday, January 19, the first three episodes can be watched. Our Spanish language sister channel CiclismoAlDia were able to attend the official presentation at Espacio Movistar on Gran Via in Madrid, where the focus was on Eusebio Unzue, manager of the Spanish team, and Perico Delgado.

The two great figures of Spanish cycling starred in the exclusive preview of episode one of the new season, once again fronted by journalist Monica Marchante. After a brief photocall, the media quickly moved into the screening room.

When the lights went out and attention turned to the big screen, Unzue and Delgado stepped out of the spotlight and it passed to Ivan Romeo and Enric Mas. As expected, the two Movistar Team leaders took up most of the screen time in this opening episode, delivering several standout moments.

The episode began by focusing on Romeo, who despite his young age is already a key leader at Movistar. The footage made it clear that personality is something he has in abundance. The first images came from the UAE Tour, where he finished just seconds away from a place on the overall podium, which was won by Tadej Pogacar.

That race showed that the young rider from Valladolid could have a very high ceiling as a professional. At the same time, aware of Romeo’s youth, the documentary then showed him back in his home city, playing basketball with a friend. Inside every star there is still a human being who suffers, laughs, enjoys life and switches off from the brutal demands of cycling.

As mentioned, the episode alternated its focus between Ivan Romeo and Enric Mas. The Balearic rider’s turn came with images from Itzulia, where he finished second overall to claim his second consecutive podium in a WorldTour stage race.

However, the most talked-about moment involving Enric Mas at the Tour of the Basque Country was not that result. Any dedicated cycling fan will know the scene. On the final stage, while Mas was mounting an epic comeback in the general classification, he found himself face-to-face with Joao Almeida at the decisive moment.

At that point, the Portuguese rider virtually had the yellow jersey secured. For that reason, and as happens in many races, Enric asked Joao if he could “give” him the stage. That gesture could have ended a drought of almost three years without a victory for the Balearic rider. But his bad luck was that a TV motorbike picked up the conversation.

That day sparked a storm of reaction on X, formerly Twitter, with all kinds of opinions about what had happened. That is why seeing Enric Mas, Jose Joaquin Rojas and other team members later joking about it is such a good touch. Like the images of Romeo playing basketball, it helps to humanise a team leader who is so often criticised.

In the final part of the episode, after focusing on the two leaders, the opening chapter of El Día Menos Pensado turned to the new group of Spanish riders coming through strongly: Ivan Romeo, Javier Romo, Carlos Canal, Jon Barrenetxea and Pablo Castrillo.

The screening explained why they are known as the team’s “penguins”, an internal joke linked to the penguins from Madagascar that drew laughter across the room. The five are serious professionals, but also a close group of friends who are simply living their dream as elite cyclists.

To finish, the hook for the next episode could hardly have been better. The final images already pointed towards the Tour de France. That edition arrived with huge hope for Movistar: Ivan Romeo was coming off a big stage win at the Dauphine against Mathieu van der Poel, Florian Lipowitz and the rest of the breakaway on stage three, while Enric Mas arrived after two WorldTour podiums.

But as is well known, things did not go well from the very start. The Tour de France has always been a difficult race for Enric, and on top of that came physical problems whose origin was unclear at the time.

Stage 12 to Hautacam was circled in red on Enric Mas’s calendar. With Jose Joaquin Rojas and the ever-charismatic Chente Garcia Acosta – who will have a bigger role in later episodes, as confirmed to the press by the series director – in the team car, they were left stunned by a message from the Balearic rider on the first decisive climb of the day.

Then came the fade to black, leaving the media eager to see more of this new season of El Día Menos Pensado.

As a personal verdict, this is a series that any cycling fan, not just supporters of Movistar Team, should give a chance. The 2025 season, even though the team avoided relegation, was not easy. The work was solid, but the results did not follow. How did they deal with that behind the scenes? To find out, you will have to keep watching a series that is back – and maybe back to stay.