Saturday's Strade Bianche will mark the start of what traditionally is the densest season of races for the Movistar Team every single year. 24 races form a spring which will start and finish in Italy as the Giro, which travels back to the Netherlands with its start in the province of Gelderland, receives Alejandro Valverde's long-awaited debut in the Corsa Rosa with Eusebio Unzué's squad.

The UCI's World No. 1 in 2015 will be in Siena to seek for a victory to discharge him of pressure after consecutive podium finishes in 2014 and 2015. The Spaniard will also surely feature prominently at Tirreno-Adriatico, prelude to a rich schedule of classics that includes the Ronde van Vlaanderen - also his maiden participation - and the Ardennes classics, a trio on which he's already the main star of his generation, despite not having won Amstel yet.

Before 'De Ronde', and exactly one month after the Colombian Championship - where he finished in 4th place - Nairo Quintana looks forward to surprising again in one-week stage races. Volta a Catalunya(21-27), Vuelta al País Vasco (4-9 April) and Tour de Romandie (26 April-1 May) will be the three main stops for the 'Cóndor' of Boyacá in his first main form peak of the season.

At the first Monument of the season, Milano-Sanremo - which goes back to its traditional Saturday spot (19 March) - Juanjo Lobato will be searching for glory, probably more calm than in his infructuous 2015 attempt. The man from Trebujena will test his legs at Paris-Nice (6-13), where Jesús Herrada and Ion Izagirre, second-placed finishers in both Haut Var and Algarve, will lead the Blues' GC chances. The increasingly recovering Spanish schedule - Estella, Amorebieta, Castilla y León, Asturias, Madrid - completes a spring season full of passion and interest for the Blues.