ANDhe navarro Eusebio Unzuedirector of the Movistar Team, takes stock for MARCA of everything that surrounds the Navarrese formation.
The veteran leader from Navarra is confident that his team will know how to turn around a Tour that has started crossed, but where they have high hopes of being able to achieve a partial victory as they already achieved in the last Giro d’Italia.
They have received a visit from President José María Álvarez-Pallete. It always gives them good luck.
For us it is a pride that you are here. Also, whenever he comes we usually do good performances.
What plans do you have now in the team?
After Enric’s retirement, the team has been released from other types of obligations. We want to be present in the breakaways and try to place the riders well. For example, Pedrero is going to have options to be on the run and we hope he has a chance to win.
The Pyrenees have once again been key.
We will return in LaVuelta to Tourmalet where we went down yesterday. It is history of our sport together with the Alps. There have been great days for cycling and also for the team.
Have you spoken with the Spaniard?
It’s okay, but these are things that happen. We must turn the page and be practical. He has to heal and see if in three weeks he can hit the road and not lose the rhythm he had. Hopefully I can be in LaVuelta with a previous training base.
The one who is fine is Carlos Rodríguez, who has already signed him for next year.
I can’t say more than you know. Carlos is making a progression. He verifies at every opportunity that he has the quality of him. Discovering the Tour will help you to continue progressing and have a base of knowledge of what the race is like. Here he is training with the best in the world. The good thing is that, in Spanish cycling, we continue to have good riders who excite us.
Why haven’t they given up their voices for the Tour radio? Were the 5,000 euros they pay each team to do it few?
Absolutely. It has not been a money problem. We are aware that this will be good for our sport, it will make it more spectacular. But it can discover you before the rivals, although now it is not our concern. It can be done in a better way. We will make the decision in the future whether we all do it or not. So far, we have not found it convenient.
They are not going to do ‘The least expected day’ anymore.
We have always thought of giving ourselves a breather that would be convenient. We don’t know if we will do it this year or not, but not in principle.
What does follow is their relationship with Movistar, will they renew?
I hope so. We are talking to renew with Movistar. The presence of the president in the Tour confirms the good predisposition. We want to show that we can do it well. We are looking at options to add a second option as sponsor: Also negotiating with the Saudis, but it is going slowly.
What do the bosses ask?
May we make the best possible use of the M we wear on our chests. And let’s give all the good that cycling generates. They’ve been around for years and they’re checking it out. We want to continue working like this so that they continue to trust in the sponsorship of the team and help us grow.
Does this start of the Tour surprise you?
What will happen I do not know. We start the Tour with a very demanding menu. What happened in the Basque Country was very fast and very intense. It was already seen that there were two unique favorites. In the Pyrenees we discovered that Pogacar and Vingegaard are very good runners, but they are also human. Possibly it was something, Tadej’s crisis on the first day, that no one expected. But it is that everyone here is vulnerable. Although Vingegaard is still the big favourite, things can happen here every day.
