Quintana, Valverde and Landa to lead Movistar at Tour de France

Nairo Quintana, Alejandro Valverde and Mikel Landa confirmed as team leaders as Movistar team annouces preselection of ten riders for the Tour de France (7-29 July)

Movistar is looking to race hard at this year's Tour de France with a team of domestiques to support it's three leaders; Nairo Quintana (2nd in 2013 and 2015), Alejandro Valverde (3rd in 2015) and Mikel Landa (4th last year).

All three are in great form with Quintana finishing 2nd overall and winning a stage of the Tour de Suisse. Landa came close to another victory recently and Valverde won the Route d’Occitanie overall in France, plus a stage.

“We go to the Tour with big hopes to shine,” said Quintana as team-mate Landa underlined the roster’s strength: “It’s not just the three of us; with the five team-mates we’ll have at the start with us, the lineup will be one to fear.” Valverde emphasized that collective threat: “The race will set things straight as usual, but having three chances to win offers us many strategical choices we’ll try to take advantage from.”

In turn, Fernández de Alarcón spoke on behalf of all Telefónica employees’ expectations to the riders: “For Telefónica, it’s a big pride to have such great ambassadors as you all. We know you’ll leave everything you’ve got on the road for our brand, and we want you to feel that we’ll all be rooting for you from here.”

Besides the three leaders, the list includes Andrey Amador (CRC), Daniele Bennati (ITA), Imanol Erviti, Nelson Oliveira (POR), José Joaquín Rojas, Marc Soler and Jasha Sütterlin (GER).

Strong Team

Movistar are fielding one of the strongest teams for this year's Tour de France, if they are able to choose a leader with the first or second week of the Tour, Movistar pose a real threat to the dominance of other teams including Team Sky. The three leaders are all world class climber's who will feature in the many grueling mountain stages. Working together, they pose a real threat to the dominance of other Teams including Team Sky.