In an interview with Cyclingnews, Movistar manager Eusebio Unzue has outlined the goals for his leader Alejandro Valverde. The Movistar rider will be present at the start of the Tour de France in order to support Colombian Nairo Quintana. He be going for the victory in the first three-week race : the Giro d'Italia.

"Giving him new races to look at and see what he can do is not a bad thing at all. The same goes for the Giro d’Italia, we’d like him to see what that race is like, the special atmosphere it has and the huge level of affection the Italians have for their home Grand Tour", he explained. "We want him to see what it’s like, and I think he could fight for the overall. But his calendar in general in 2016 is more based around one-day racing."

For the Classics period, Unzue confirmed that Alejandro Valverde will race the Tour of Flanders. He will be also present in Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. "He’s very straightforward, because luckily, he doesn’t need new challenges to continue to be motivated. But I don’t want that to stop Alejandro from experiencing the magic of a start of of Tour of Flanders, even if it’s a race where he’ll be finding out what he can do. The other reason why I want him to do Flanders is that he knows what the Belgium of the Ardennes is like, so I want him to experience the other kind of Belgian racing, the Belgium of the pavés."