Movistar has made it clear that their big season goal is to win a grand tour and the team has already come a long way in drawing up initial rosters for the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. Nairo Quintana will be supported by Igor Anton, John Gadret and Sylwester Szmyd in Italy while Alejandro Valverde will have Benat Intxausti, Jose Herrada, and Eros Capecchi at his side in France.
At the recent team presentation, Movistar manager Eusebio Unzue announced the team's major goal for the coming season. After several podium places in recent years, the team wants to win a grand tour.
For some time, it has been known that Nairo Quintana will lead the team in the Giro while Alejandro Valverde will be the Tour captain. The duo is set to line up together at the Vuelta late in the season.
However, Biciciclismo reports that the team already has a rough idea of their complete line-ups for the fwo first grand tours of the season.
For his first attempt at the Giro, Quintana can expect great support in the mountains as new signings Igor Anton and John Gadret who both have had lots of success in the Italian grand tour, will line up alongside veteran Pole Sylwester Szmyd who has been part of grand tour winning teams in the past. For the flat stages, he can count on TT specialists Adriano Malori and Jonathan Catroviejo while the long list is completed by 2012 stage winner Andrey Amador, new signing Gorka Izagirre, climber Javier Moreno, veteran Pablo Lastras and sprinter Francesco Ventoso. This means that 11 riders fight for the 9 positions on the roster.
In the Tour Valverde's key domestique will be Benat Intxausti who will return to the French grand tour after a very successful Giro. Jose Herrada and Eros Capecchi will also do the race after having supported Valverde in last year's Vuelta. Ruben Plaza will give further strength in the mountains. For the flat stages, he can count on his loyal domestiques Jose Ivan Gutierrez and Imanol Erviti while Alex Dowsett is likely to get his Tour debut. As always, Jose Joaquin Rojas will give the team a few options in the sprints.
It is still too early to say anything about the Vuelta roster but Ion Izagirre has been penciled in to do his home grand tour in his first year with Movistar while Erviti is also likely to be at the start.
Sprinters Juan Jose Lobato and Enrique Sanz, Spanish champion Jesus Herrada, and neo-pros Dayer Quintana and Jasha Sütterlin all have limited grand tour experience and at the moment their only chance of doing a three-week race comes at the Vuelta. It remains to be seen what role Giovanni Visconti will play after the Italian broke his tibia in a crash in the People's Choice Classic.
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