Movistar Team () is a professional

road bicycle racing Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to infor ...

which participates at

UCI WorldTeam A UCI WorldTeam (2015–present), previously UCI ProTeam (2005–2014), is the term used by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to name a cycling team of the highest category in professional road cycling, the UCI World Tour or UCI ProTour ...

level and has achieved thirteen

general classification The general classification (or the GC) in road bicycle racing is the category that tracks overall times for riders in multi- stage races. Each stage will have a stage winner, but the overall winner in the GC is the rider who has the fastest cumula ...

(GC) victories in

Grand Tours In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour is one of the three major European professional cycling stage races: Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España. Collectively they are termed the ''Grand Tours'', and all three races are similar in ...

. The title sponsor is the Spanish mobile telephone company

Telefónica Telefónica, S.A. () is a Spanish Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It is List of telephone operating companies, one of the largest telephone operators and List of mobile network ...

, with the team riding under the name of the company's brand ''

Movistar Movistar () is a major telecommunications provider owned by Telefónica, operating in Spain and Hispanic American countries. It is the largest provider of landline, broadband, Mobile telephony, mobile services, and pay television (Movistar+) in ...

''. The team was formed as '' Reynolds'', led by

Ángel Arroyo Angel Arroyo Lanchas (born 2 August 1956 in El Barraco) is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. In the 1983 Tour de France, Arroyo won one stage and finished 2nd place in the general classification. In stage 17 of the 1982 Vuelta ...

and later by Pedro Delgado, who won a

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consist ...

and a

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; en, Tour of Spain) is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the ...

, and was subsequently sponsored by ''

Banesto Banco Español de Crédito, S.A. (), “Spanish Credit Bank”) better known as Banesto, was a Spanish multinational financial services company. Prior to the Spanish Government's historical intervention in 1993, the very first in the history of ...

'', under which name the team included 5-time Tour de France winner

Miguel Indurain --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places * Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands * São Miguel (disa ...

and

Alex Zülle Alex Zülle (born 5 July 1968) is a Swiss former professional road bicycle racer. During the 1990s he was one of the most successful cyclists in the world, winning the 1996 and 1997 Vuelta a España, taking second place in the 1995 and the 1999 ...

, twice winner of the Vuelta a España. The team offices are in Egüés, in

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

, Spain. A later sponsor was Caisse d'Epargne, a French semi-cooperative banking group. Having previously used Pinarello bikes, the team rode Canyon frames in 2014, with

Campagnolo Campagnolo is an Italian manufacturer of high-end bicycle components with headquarters in Vicenza, Italy. The components are organised as groupsets (gruppi), and are a near-complete collection of a bicycle's mechanical parts. Campagnolo's flag ...

parts. Since 2008, Eusebio Unzué has been the manager of the team after the long running manager,

José Miguel Echavarri José Miguel Echavarri García (born 10 October 1947 in Abárzuza) is a Spanish former racing cyclist who was the team manager for from its inception in 1980 as Reynolds until 2008 as Caisse d'Epargne. Major results Sources: ;1970 : 8th Clási ...

, retired from the sport. The

directeurs sportifs A ''directeur sportif'' ( French for sporting director, although the original French term is often used in English-language media; plural ''directeurs sportifs'') is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is se ...

of the team are José Vicente García, Pablo Lastras,

José Luis Jaimerena José Luis Jaimerena (born 12 May 1960 in Elizondo, Navarre, Elizondo) is a Spanish former racing cyclist and current directeur sportif for . Major results ;1982 : 1st Prologue Cinturón a Mallorca References External links

* 1960 bir ...

, Patxi Vila and

Max Sciandri Maximilian Sciandri (born 15 February 1967) is a retired British road racing cyclist of Italian descent. He competed as an Italian national up to February 1995, then took British citizenship. He won the bronze medal in the men's individual road ...

History

Reynolds (1980–1989)

The team began in 1980 as the Reynolds team which José Miguel Echavarri as the directeur sportif. In 1982 signed a young Pedro Delgado who acted as a domestique for team leader

during the 1982 Vuelta a España. Arroyo won the Vuelta after his team controlled the race after he took the lead. But 48 hours after his Vuelta win, the results of a positive test were made known for

Methylphenidate Methylphenidate, sold under the brand names Ritalin and Concerta among others, is the most widely prescribed central nervous system (CNS) stimulant medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and, to a lesser extent ...

(Ritalin). Arroyo and the Reynolds team denied that Arroyo doped and asked for a B-analysis which confirmed the positive A-sample. Arroyo became the first winner of the Vuelta a España to be disqualified. Delgado changed teams in 1985 but returned to Reynolds in 1988 where he won the

1988 Tour de France The 1988 Tour de France was the 75th edition of the Tour de France, taking place from 4 to 24 July. It consisted of 22 stages over . The race was won by Pedro Delgado with the top three positions at the end of the race being occupied by speciali ...

and then the

1989 Vuelta a España The 44th Edition ''Vuelta a España'' (Tour of Spain), a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from April 24 to May 15, 1989. It consisted of 22 stages covering a total of , and was won by Pedro Delgado of the ...

with the team. In 1984,

made his professional debut with the team.

Banesto (1990–2003)

In 1990, Spanish bank Banesto took over as the main sponsor of the team from Reynolds. Delgado was the team leader for the Tour de France while

and

Julián Gorospe Julián Gorospe Artabe (born 22 March 1960 in Mañaria) is a Spanish former professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 1982 and 1994, entirely for the team. Gorospe also worked as the directeur sportif of between 1998 ...

were the leaders for the week long stage races. When Gorospe took the lead in that year's Vuelta, the team went behind him in a bid to win the race. However Gorospe lost the leader's jersey and Delgado took over the leadership but could not regain the time that Italian Marco Giovannetti had gained and ended the race second overall behind Giovannetti. Over the following years, Indurain rose to become a dominator of stage races winning five editions of the Tour de France and two editions of the Giro d'Italia. Delgado was the team leader for the Vuelta. The team also achieved success with Jean-François Bernard who won the 1992 edition of Paris–Nice with the team. The team won the Vuelta again in 1998 with Abraham Olano. During this time Alex Zülle joined the team and finished the

1999 Tour de France The 1999 Tour de France was a multiple stage bicycle race held from 3 to 25 July, and the 86th edition of the Tour de France. It has no overall winner—although American cyclist Lance Armstrong originally won the event, the United States Anti ...

second overall while legendary climber José María Jiménez performed in the Vuelta a España. The team became known as iBanesto.com in the final years of the sponsorship of the Banesto bank.

Illes Balears (2004–2005)

In 2004, Illes Balears, the Balearic Island's Tourism Board, became the team's principal sponsor, the team's name was Illes Balears-Banesto until 2005. Caisse d'Epargne took over from Banesto as the second sponsor in the 2005 season, the team was then known as Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne. Caisse d'Epargne then became the main sponsor in 2006 reversing the title sponsor ordering with the name, Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears. The team fielded a number of strong contenders in the 2005 Tour de France including Francisco Mancebo ( former National Champion of Spain),

Alejandro Valverde Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (born 25 April 1980) is a Spanish former professional road racing cyclist, who last rode for UCI WorldTeam . Valverde's biggest wins have been the Vuelta a España in 2009, Critérium du Dauphiné in 2008 and 2009 ...

, Vladimir Karpets and sprinter Isaac Gálvez. Mancebo produced the best results finishing fourth overall in the General Classification.

Caisse d'Epargne (2006–2010)

Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears finished fifth overall (56 minutes, 53 seconds behind Team T-Mobile) in the Team Classification at the

2006 Tour de France The 2006 Tour de France was the 93rd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between the 1st and the 23rd of July. It was won by Óscar Pereiro following the disqualification of Floyd Landis. Due to the Unite ...

. Individually, the team's top rider, Óscar Pereiro, finished in second place. The Tour victory of Phonak rider

Floyd Landis Floyd Landis (born October 14, 1975) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He finished first at the 2006 Tour de France, and would have been the third non-European winner in the event's history, but was disqualified after test ...

was almost immediately called into question, after a urine sample taken after his Stage 17 win twice tested positive for banned synthetic

testosterone Testosterone is the primary sex hormone and anabolic steroid in males. In humans, testosterone plays a key role in the development of male reproductive tissues such as testes and prostate, as well as promoting secondary sexual characteris ...

as well as a ratio of

to epitestosterone nearly three times the limit allowed by

World Anti-Doping Agency The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; french: Agence mondiale antidopage, AMA) is a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The agency's k ...

rules. After hearing of the positive "A" test, Pereiro stated that it was only an initial, unconfirmed result and he would not yet consider Landis guilty or himself the Tour winner. "I have too much respect for Landis to do otherwise", he said. After hearing that the Landis "B" test also came back positive, Pereiro stated that he now considers himself Tour champion and the Landis scandal should not diminish his own achievement. "Right now I feel like the winner of the Tour de France", Pereiro said. "It's a victory for the whole team." After nearly two years of appeals, Pereiro was officially upgraded to Tour champion for 2006.

Movistar (2011– )

On 31 May 2010, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the appeals from WADA and the UCI regarding the suspension of Alejandro Valverde for his implication in the

Operación Puerto doping case Operación Puerto (''Operation Mountain Pass'') is the code name of a still unfinished Spanish Police operation against the pro sports doping network of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. It started in May 2006, which resulted in a scandal that involved s ...

. Valverde was banned for two years, starting 1 January 2010 and after serving the two-year suspension returned to competition in 2012 riding for the Movistar Team. The 2011 season proved to be a transitional one for the team, with their first victory coming as a single stage win in the

Tour Down Under The Tour Down Under (branded as the Santos Tour Down Under under a partnership arrangement) is a cycling race in and around Adelaide, South Australia, and is traditionally the opening event of the UCI World Tour and features all 19 UCI World ...

, courtesy of Francisco Jose Ventoso. The team found success with stage wins in the

Volta a Catalunya The Volta a Catalunya (; en, Tour of Catalonia, es, Vuelta a Cataluña, link=no) is a road bicycle race held annually in Catalonia, Spain. It is one of three World Tour stage races in Spain, together with the Vuelta a España and the Tour of t ...

and

Tour of the Basque Country The Tour of the Basque Country (Officially: ''Itzulia Basque Country'', es, Vuelta al País Vasco, links=no, eu, Euskal Herriko Itzulia) is an annual road cycling stage race held in the Spanish Basque Country in April. It is one of the races th ...

. The team also won two stages of the Giro d'Italia: Ventoso won stage 6 and Vasil Kiryienka won stage 20. The team's final Grand Tour win came courtesy of

Rui Costa Rui Manuel César Costa (; born 29 March 1972) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who is the 34th president of sports club S.L. Benfica. He also succeeded Luís Filipe Vieira as president of the club's SAD board of directors. ...

in the

. The 2012 season saw the team re-establish itself as one of the major general classification contenders. The return of Valverde almost immediately brought the team success with a stage win in the Tour Down Under, followed by the overall win of the

Vuelta a Andalucía The Vuelta a Andalucía (Tour of Andalusia) or Ruta del Sol (Route of the Sun) is a regional Spanish road bicycle race first held in 1925. Since 2005, it has been a 2.1 category race on the UCI Europe Tour. The race became a part of the new UCI P ...

as well as a stage win. Colombian new recruit

Nairo Quintana Nairo Alexánder Quintana Rojas, ODB, (born 4 February 1990) is a Colombian racing cyclist, who rides for UCI ProSeries, UCI ProTeam . Nicknamed "Nairoman" and "El Cóndor de los Andes", Quintana is a specialist climber, known for his ability ...

also brought the team overall victory at the

Vuelta a Murcia The Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia ( en, Tour of Murcia) is a road bicycle race held in and around Murcia, Spain. The first four editions were reserved to amateurs. Originally the race was held in early March and consisted of five stages. However, due ...

. The team scored multiple overall classification victories; Quintana claimed the

Route du Sud The Route d'Occitanie is a road bicycle race with 4 stages held annually in Southern France. It was first held in 1977 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. It is usually held a week before the Tour de France ...

, Rui Costa the

Tour de Suisse The Tour de Suisse ( en, Tour of Switzerland) is an annual road cycling stage race. Raced over eight days, the event covers two weekends in June, and along with the Critérium du Dauphiné, it is considered a proving ground for the Tour de France ...

, Javier Moreno the Vuelta a Castilla y León and finally

Beñat Intxausti Beñat Intxausti Elorriaga (born 20 March 1986) is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2007 and 2019 for the Nicolas Mateos, , , , and teams. Career Intxausti was born in Amorebieta-Etxano, Bis ...

won the

Vuelta a Asturias Vuelta Asturias is a professional cycle road race held in Spain in early May each year. The event was first run in 1925 but has not been held consistently until 1968 to present. Since 2005, the race has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UC ...

. The team also won stages in all three Grand Tours. The 2013 season closely followed the previous years, Valverde scored multiple early season results with the

Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana The Challenge Vuelta Ciclista a Mallorca ( en, Tour of Majorca, ca, Challenge Volta Ciclista a Mallorca) is a series of four (five until 2012) professional one day road bicycle races held on the Spanish island of Mallorca in late January or ear ...

and an overall win in the

. Quintana further reinforced his potential as a Grand Tour GC rider with the overall win in the Tour of the Basque Country as well as claiming second place in the

, taking the King of the Mountains in addition to the Young rider classification. He further reinforced his reputation as a force to be reckoned with, with an overall win in the

Vuelta a Burgos Vuelta Ciclista a Burgos is an elite professional road bicycle racing event held annually in the Burgos province of Spain. The men's Vuelta a Burgos has been a multi-day stage race as part of the UCI Europe Tour since 2005. In 2019, a multi-day w ...

. Intxausti got the team's final overall win of the year and Costa won the UCI World Road Race championships. For the 2014 season the team confirmed that they would shift from Pinarello bikes to Canyon Bicycles. For 2014, the team adopted a 'divide and conquer' based tactic for the season's Grand Tours; first sending Quintana to the Giro, Valverde to the Tour and then finally both riders to the Vuelta. Quintana achieved the team's first victory - winning stage 4 of the Tour de San Luis as well as the overall classification, Adriano Malori also won the individual time trial stage. Once again Valverde won the Vuelta a Andalucía as well as the Vuelta a Murcia, Roma Maxima, GP Miguel Indurain and

La Flèche Wallonne La Flèche Wallonne (, French for "The Walloon Arrow") is a men's professional cycle road race held in April each year in Wallonia, Belgium. The first of two Belgian Ardennes classics, La Flèche Wallonne is today normally held mid-week betw ...

. In May, Quintana won the team's first Grand Tour since Valverde's 2009 Vuelta victory, the

2014 Giro d'Italia The 2014 Giro d'Italia was the 97th running of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tour races. The race started off in Belfast, on 9 May, with a team time trial and concluded in Trieste, on 1 June, with a flat stage. A total of 198 r ...

. As with the previous season, Quintana defended his Vuelta a Burgos title winning it for the second straight year. In August 2014, the team announced the signing of

Marc Soler Marc Soler Giménez (born 22 November 1993) is a Spanish cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Career Soler was born in Vilanova i la Geltru. In 2017, Soler finished third overall behind team mate Alejandro Valverde and Alberto Contad ...

() and Rubén Fernández () on a 2-year contract. At the

2015 Tour de France The 2015 Tour de France was the 102nd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The -long race consisted of 21 stages, starting on 4 July in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and concluding on 26 July with the Champs-Élysées st ...

, the team finished first in the teams classification, and the two top men of the team, Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde finished second and third in the general classification, respectively, with Quintana also winning the white jersey as best young rider, and finishing second in the king of the mountains classification. During the 2016 Tour, the team finished first in the teams classification by 8' 14" over Team Sky. Nairo Quintana made the podium by finishing third overall in the general classification standings and Ion Izagirre claimed victory on stage 20. Later during the 2016 Vuelta a España, Quintana won stage 10 and the overall. The team concluded the year with their fourth win in the team ranking of 2016 UCI World Tour. In 2019, Richard Carapaz won the Giro d'Italia, and the team won the team classification in all three Grand Tours. The team's season is captured in a documentary series, '' The Least Expected Day: Inside the Movistar Team 2019'', available on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

Team roster

Major wins

National, continental and world champions

;1982 :

Spain Road Race

José Luis Laguía José Luis Laguía Martínez (born 30 September 1959) is a retired Spanish road cyclist and climber. He won a record five mountains classifications at the Vuelta a España during his career. As a faithful Domestique of Pedro Delgado he follo ...

;1983 :

Spain Road Race Carlos Hernández ;1992 : MaillotEspaña

Spain Road Race

;1995 :

World Time Trial

;1997 :

British Road Race

Jeremy Hunt Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (born 1 November 1966) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer since 14 October 2022. He previously served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport ...

Spain Road Race José María Jiménez ;1998 : Jersey rainbow chrono

World Time Trial Abraham Olano ;2003 : MaillotEspaña

Spain Road Race

Rubén Plaza Rubén Plaza Molina (born 29 February 1980) is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer, who competed professionally between 2001 and 2019 for the , S.L. Benfica, , (over three spells), , and teams. During his career, he recorded a to ...

;2004 :

Spain Road Race

Francisco Mancebo Francisco Mancebo Pérez (born 9 March 1976) is a Spanish professional cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Continental team . He initially rode for team , but moved to in 2006. Mancebo is a stage race specialist, with good climbing and indivi ...

Spain Time Trial Jose Ivan Gutierrez ;2005 : MaillotEspaña

Spain Time Trial Jose Ivan Gutierrez ;2006 : MaillotFra

France Road Race Florent Brard ;2007 : MaillotEspaña

Spain Road Race Joaquim Rodríguez : MaillotEspaña

Spain Time Trial Jose Ivan Gutierrez ;2008 : MaillotEspaña

Spain Road Race

Spain Time Trial

Luis León Sanchez Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

;2010 :

Spain Road Race Jose Ivan Gutierrez : MaillotEspaña

Spain Time Trial

Portugal Time Trial

;2011 :

Spain Road Race Jose Joaquin Rojas ;2012 : MaillotEspaña

Spain Road Race Francisco Ventoso : MaillotBielorrusia

Belarus Time Trial Branislau Samoilau ;2013 : MaillotReinoUnido

British Time Trial

Alex Dowsett Alex Edward Albert Dowsett (born 3 October 1988) is a former British professional road racing cyclist, who rode for UCI WorldTeam . He was a time trial specialist, and in 2015, he broke track cycling's world hour record by , with a distance of ...

Spain Time Trial Jonathan Castroviejo : MaillotPortugal

Portugal Time Trial

Spain Road Race Jesús Herrada : Jersey rainbow

World Road Race

;2014 :

Spain Time Trial

Spain Road Race Ion Izagirre : MaillotItalia

Italy Time Trial Adriano Malori ;2015 : MaillotReinoUnido

British Time Trial

Italy Time Trial Adriano Malori : MaillotEspaña

Spain Time Trial Jonathan Castroviejo : MaillotEspaña

Spain Road Race

;2016 :

British Time Trial

Spain Time Trial Ion Izagirre : MaillotPortugal

Portugal Time Trial

Nelson Oliveira Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

Spain Road Race

José Joaquín Rojas José Joaquín Rojas Gil (born 8 June 1985) is a Spanish professional road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Career Rojas turned professional in 2006 with . His older brother Mariano Rojas, was a professional cyclist as w ...

European Time Trial Jonathan Castroviejo ;2017 : MaillotEspaña

Spain Time Trial Jonathan Castroviejo : MaillotEspaña

Spain Road Race Jesús Herrada ;2018 : Jersey rainbow

World Road Race

;2019 :

Spain Road Race

;2020 :

European Track Championships The European Track Cycling Championships are a set of elite level competition events held annually for the various disciplines and distances in track cycling, exclusively for European cyclists, and regulated by the European Cycling Union (UEC ...

(Madison)

Sebastián Mora Sebastián Mora Vedri (born 19 February 1988) is a Spanish track cyclist and road cyclist, who most recently rode for UCI Continental team . At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he competed in the Men's team pursuit for the national team. Major resu ...

& Albert Torres : European champion jersey 2016

(Points race)

;2021 :

Puerto Rico Time Trial Abner González : MaillotPuertoRico

Puerto Rico Road Race Abner González ;2022 : MaillotDinamarca

Denmark Time Trial

Mathias Norsgaard Mathias Norsgaard Jørgensen (born 5 May 1997 in Silkeborg) is a Danish cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . His sister, Emma Norsgaard Jørgensen, is also a professional cyclist, riding for the women's . Major results ;2014 : 1st ...

Brazil Under-23 Time Trial

Vinícius Rangel Vinícius Rangel Costa (born 26 May 2001) is a Brazilian road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He began cycling around the age of 13 when encouraged to take up the sport by a cousin. Major results ;2018 : National Junior Road ...

Brazil Road Race

Puerto Rico Road Race Abner González

Former riders

References

External links

* {{Vuelta a España team classification winners

Cycling teams based in Spain Cycling teams established in 1980 Telefónica 1980 establishments in Spain

History

Reynolds (1980–1989)

Banesto (1990–2003)

Illes Balears (2004–2005)

Caisse d'Epargne (2006–2010)

Movistar (2011– )

Team roster

Major wins

National, continental and world champions

Former riders

See also

References

External links