The Movistar Team Gravel Squad returns to action with Iván García Cortina

Last week saw the debut of the Movistar Team Gravel Squad on the UCI gravel circuit with a victory for Alejandro Valverde in La Indomable in Almeria. A few days later it will be the turn of Iván García Cortina in Girona.

This Saturday, April 29, Cortina and Hayley Simmonds will be in charge of representing the Movistar team at The Traka. The Asturian has not competed since the last Liège-Bastogne-Liège, in which he gave his all but he could not get past position 32.

To date, the 2023 season has been up and down for Cortina. He started off well, coming close to victory in the Palma - Palma Trophy (fourth place) and in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (third in the first stage). Then he couldn't do anything in a Vuelta a Andalucía dominated from start to finish by Tadej Pogacar.

He finished eleventh in the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and eighth in the first stage of Paris-Nice. His best race of the year was the E3 Saxo Classic, in which he was very strong and finished fifth, although he could have achieved something more. He had strength. Then, he had no luck in the Gent Wevelgem (dropout), the Tour of Flanders (21) and in the aforementioned Liège, in which he finished in the group in which he had to finish, but without strength in the sprint to fight for a better position.