Movistar sports director Jose Luis Arrieta has told Cyclingnews that Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana are co-leaders of the team at the Vuelta a Espana, and there is no hierarchy between the two before the race, although it may change during the event.

"The tactic is going to be eat, drink and sit on wheels," Arrieta said with a grin. "No, seriously, we’ll see how it goes, but I don’t want to make any predictions."

The two riders, he confirmed, would be "co-leaders," with equal protected status. "Then we’ll just take things on the day by day, see how it goes."

Movistar know that not winning the Vuelta wont ruin their season, but they want to win their home Grand Tour and fight on all the stages for the victory.

"Coming here with Nairo and Alejandro, if everything goes normally, we’ll be amongst the front runners. But just looking at Grand Tours and how Movistar have got on this year, it wouldn’t be the same if we had gone to the Giro and done nothing, rather than what actually happened - going with a youngish squad and getting fourth with Andrey [Amador]. Then, of course, there’s everything we did at the Tour."

"We’ve got a great deal of illusion and ambition for the Vuelta, but we know we’ve done a great deal already in this year."