Moving With The Times

Movistar squad hopes its new women’s team will help more talent prosper in Spain.

When Movistar announced this autumn that, for the first time in their 37-year history, they were creating a women’s team, one of the most striking messages of support came from the Spanish Cycling Federation’s President José Luis López Cerrón, writes Alasdair Fotheringham.

“It will revitalise women’s cycling in Spain,” he said.

Can a team in its first year with no marquee signings really be expected to achieve so much? In Spain, the answer has to be yes.

As López Cerrón’s comments indirectly confirm, women’s cycling has a lot of ground to make up in Spain. In November 2017, the country’s two best squads, Bizkaia-Durango and Lointek, were rated 23rd and 31st in the UCI teams ranking. The racing scene is better than it used to be, with the recently-created Madrid Challenge joined by the long-standing Emakumeen Bira in the WorldTour in 2018. But a quick glance at the UCI’s rider’s ranking makes it painfully clear how the drought of sponsor support makes it virtually impossible for local talent to shine through.