Today Movistar announced that they have signed a contract with Igor Anton for the coming season, thus offering the Basque a chance to continue his career despite the demise of Euskaltel. The new recruit is ready to give up his leadership role and ride in support of Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde.

Igor Anton faced the prospect of an early retirement when he failed to sign a contract with a new team for most of the off-season. However, he managed to save his career at the last moment when Movistar today announced that they have signed the Spaniard on a contract that according to Biciciclismo will see him be part of the telephone squad for two years.

The deal comes at the end of a hard time for Anton who appeared to have everything in place in August when he was very close to signing a contract with Omega Pharma-Quick Step. As he had an existing contract with Euskaltel, he had to put those negotiations on hold when it emerged that Fernando Alonso tried to take over the license from the Basque team.

Those plans were never realized and when Anton was informed that the negotiations had broken down, Omega Pharma-Quick Step had closed its roster. Hence, the Basque was forced to look elsewhere and despite being linked to Astana, Lampre-Merida and Colombia, nothing was concrete.

Finally, Anton was thrown a lifeline by Movistar who decided to add an extra rider to its roster which had already been finalized more than a month ago. He admits that it has been his hardest off-season yet and is happy to have been given an unexpected opportunity.

"It was a new situation for me not to have closed anything on December 10," he told Biciciclismo. "The year has been different from my other years at Euskaltel-Euskadi as there have been many setbacks: the demise of the team, Alonso who came and went, and none of them happened at the best time.

"I think I handled it in the best possible way," he added. "I tried to give myself less stress and I always believed that I would get a new opportunity. It has now turned up with Movistar Team and I am grateful for their trust. It has been a tough year but it ends well with renewed hope for the future."

Anton has four Vuelta stage wins, a Giro win on the feared Monte Zoncolan on his palmares and two top 10 results from the Vuelta on his palmares. In 2010 he even came close to winning the final grand tour of the season when he crashed out of the race at a time when he appeared to be the strongest rider in the race.

However, Anton had a terrible 2013 season, with a 2nd place in the GP Miguel Indurain being his best result. In an attempt to find back to his best, he had actually planned to make a complete change by trying his hand in a foreign team.

"My idea was to make a complete change, first in a WorldTour team," he said. "In late August I chose Omega that was a completely different team from Euskaltel. I don't know if it would have been beneficial but my idea was to ride for a foreign team. But the option that I have now chosen, is not bad as it will be easier to adapt."

Anton is convinced that he can get back to his  best.

"Why not? 2013 has not been my best year but I have had situations where I have felt good," he said." It is true that I missed some consistency and now I need to step forward and show that I am still here. I am here to try to get back to my best next year."

Anton was one of the Euskaltel leaders but in his new team, he will ride alongside grand tour stars like Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde. This means that he is likely to play a support role in the grand tours and he is ready for the new challenge.

"I am mostly unsure whether I can pay back the team's confidence and show that I can do well not only as the leader that I have been at Euskaltel," he said. "Now I also want to support very great riders like Nairo [Quintana] and Valverde. I want to change my role, adapt to the new one and during the season I will also have my own chances. But first of all I need to adapt to the team. It will not be easy because the level is very high. We'll see what is thrown at me and what I am asked to do."

Anton's best moments have come at the Vuelta and the Giro and he has never had much success in the Tour de France. At the moment, it has still not been decided who will lead Movistar in the Giro and the Tour respectively but it has been reported that Quintana may be the Giro captain and Valverde the Tour leader.

Anton doesn't hide that he would prefer to ride the Italian and Spanish grand tours.

"I already have nine years of experience," he said. "I have always preferred the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana. They are demanding. I would like to do the Giro d'Italia with Quintana. If I don't do it, there are other interesting races."

Movistar's other new signings are  Ion and Gorka Izaguirre, Juan Lobato (Euskaltel), John Gadret (AG2R La Mondiale), Adriano Malori (Lampre-Merida), Alejandro Marque (OFM) , Dayer Quintana (beo-professional) and Jasha Sütterlin (Thuringer).