Movistar Team ready to open new era 2020.
Eusebio Unzue's women's and men's squads start fifth decade of ininterrupted activity with big event at Telefonica's Madrid headquarters on Thursday.
Spanish road race champions Alejandro Valverde & Lourdes Oyarbide showed, together with their team-mates, the new jersey of the Telefonica-backed squad, which makes a huge gamble on youth: Enric Mas (24) and Marc Soler (26) will lead the men's team together with Valverde, while the women's roster, all 29 years old or younger, will make its debut in the new UCI Women's WorldTour category
Up to fourteen nationalities from all over Europe and Latin America form a group of nearly 40 athletes, with three new riders in the women's team and up to 14 in the men's squad, including eight riders aged 23 or under
In Telefonica's tenth year of consecutive sponsorship to the team, the company reaffirmed its support to cycling as a whole, and announce the airing, in 2020, of an inside documentary around all races the Blues have taken part of in 2019
Telefonica's central headquarters in Madrid were the venue for Thursday's launch of the 2020 Movistar Team. The longest-standing, most successful cycling team in the international peloton kicked off its 41st season of uninterrupted activity, a period (since 1980) in which the Blues' men's and women's teams have achieved more than 950 victories.
Telefonica celebrated its ten years of title sponsorship of the Abarca Sports organisation with the two full rosters of the team coordinated by general manager Eusebio Unzue. Media from Spain and abroad, VIPs, famous names from the world of cycling and members of Telefonica and other team sponsors enjoyed the unveiling of the new Blue jersey, a design created by new sponsor Ale.
The Movistar Team's 2020 roster combines its everlasting support to Spanish cycling, with 21 local riders -more than half the team-, with a reinforced international focus and a rejuvenated group. The women's team, recently confirmed by the Union Cycliste Internationale as new member of the Women's WorldTour -only five other cycling teams in the world will have its 2020 men's and women's squads at the respective top tiers-, is made of riders all 29 years old or under. National champions Oyarbide and Sheyla Gutierrez, as well as Eider Merino and Colombia's Paula Patino, are the most important names of a really compact group.
The 2020 men's team, in turn, marks a stark change from last year. Fourteen new names make for a new face to a block still led by the legendary Alejandro Valverde, with youngsters Enric Mas and Marc Soler also leading a group featuring eight riders aged 23 or younger: Elosegui, Rubio, Jorgenson, Alba, Jacobs, Hollmann, Cullaigh and the only absence in the gala, Mathias Norsgaard, due to his leg injury earlier this month.
Rafael Fernandez de Alarcon, Telefonica's Director of Brand, Partnerships and Media Telefonica, remember during the event that the Movistar Team's sponsorship came into a very difficult moment for cycling, and took advantage of the gala to reaffirm Telefonica's commitment with this sport both in the professional and amateur scenes, through different initiatives such as different group rides and projects carried out with the Royal Spanish Cycling Federation.
During the event, it was also announced that an inside documentary will be aired in 2020 on the team's previous season, a set of cameramen joining the group in all competitions and capturing all moments, good and not so good, lived by the Blues during 2019. The series will follow other original products by Movistar+ during the past season, such as the documentary on Alejandro Valverde's 'rainbow season' or the one summarising the 40 years of existence of the team.
Once again, the Movistar Team will make its season debut at the men's Tour Down Under in Australia (Jan 19-26) and the women's Vuelta CV Feminas in Spain (Feb 9), covering a calendar over 300 days of racing, across twenty countries in five continents, which combines most of the WorldTour in both categories with the best Spanish races. In 2020, the Blues will reach 3,000,000 kilometers of racing with Telefonica as title sponsor, having obtained 280 victories, three Grand Tours and two World Championships in the process. More than 30 high-end companies and a fan base near two million followers on social media and its official website (www.movistarteam.com) will again be the biggest assets of this phenomenal sports team.
MOVISTAR TEAM - 2020 ROSTERS
Men's Team: Juan Diego Alba (COL), Jorge Arcas, Carlos Betancur (COL), Hector Carretero, Dario Cataldo (ITA), Gabriel Cullaigh (GBR), Inigo Elosegui, Imanol Erviti, Juri Hollmann (GER), Johan Jacobs (SUI), Matteo Jorgenson (USA), Enric Mas, Lluis Mas, Sebastian Mora, Mathias Norsgaard (DEN), Nelson Oliveira (POR), Antonio Pedrero, Edu Prades, Jurgen Roelandts (BEL), Jose Joaquin Rojas, Einer Rubio (COL), Sergio Samitier, Eduardo Sepulveda (ARG), Marc Soler, Albert Torres, Alejandro Valverde, Carlos Verona, Davide Villella (ITA). General Manager: Eusebio Unzue. Sports Directors: Jose Luis Arrieta, Chente Garcia Acosta, Jose Luis Jaimerena, Pablo Lastras, Maximilian Sciandri (ITA).
Women's Team: Katrine Aalerud (NOR), Aude Biannic (FRA), Jelena Eric (SRB), Alicia Gonzalez, Barbara Guarischi (ITA), Sheyla Gutierrez, Eider Merino, Lourdes Oyarbide, Paula Patino (COL), Gloria Rodriguez, Alba Teruel. Manager: Sebastian Unzue. Sports Director: Jorge Sanz.
Rosters as of 19th December 2019. Signings for 2020 in italics.
TELEFÓNICA, S.A. 
