In 2015, David de la Fuente will ride for the Portuguese continental team Efapel after two seasons with little racing at the Turkish Torkus team. The Spaniard will share his experience after 12 years as a professional at teams like Saunier Duval and Astana.
Davud de la Fuente will join Carlos Pereira's Efapel team.
"After two years during which I met a different kind of cycling, I now begin a new stage of my career closer to my home. And I mainly made the decision because the team does a lot of races in Spain and I am excited to return home," he tells Biciciclismo.
In 2014, de la Fuente only did 14 days of UCI racing: the Tour of Turkey (18th), the Tour of Azerbaijan (52nd) and the Spanish road race Championships (72nd). "I've raced very little these years with Torku. I didn't have the chance to compete more. It's something I like and want to feel motivated," he says.
The fact that Spaniards Alejandro Marque, Oscar Gonzalez and Diego Rubio are already at the Efapel team "is another incentive" for de la Fuente who has clear objectives.
"For every Portuguese team the most important race is the Volta ao Portugal and I will be focused on it. I will try to do well in the Spanish races too to show that I am still there. I think I still have much to offer in cycling and I can still make beautiful things," he says.
His has taken four professional wins: the GP Llodio (2007), a stage of the Tour of Germany (2008), the GP Miguel Indurain (2009) and a stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake (2013). In 2006, he was the most aggressive rider and second in the mountains classification at the Tour de France. He also accompanied Alberto Contador in his victory at the 2010 Tour de France before the Spaniard was disqualified, and Juanjo Cobo in his victory at the 2011 Vuelta a Espana. This year he was again Cobo's teammate at Torku. In total, de la Fuente has done seven Vueltas and three Tours.
He turned professional with Vini Caldirola in 2003 and rode for Saunier Duval (2004-2007), Scott-American Beef (2008), Fuji-Servetto (2009), Astana (2010), Geox (2011) and Caja Rural (2012) before he joined Torku for the 2013 season.
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