Movistar Team

Founded in 2018, Movistar’s women’s team has grown from a relatively modest, largely Spanish squad to one of the most decorated teams in the peloton, due in no small part to the successes of Annemiek van Vleuten. 

The Dutchwoman retired at the end of 2023 after three years with the team, but brought them overall victories at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, three editions of the Vuelta Femenina, and two editions of the Giro d'Italia Donne during her time in Movistar colours.

Without Van Vleuten as their lynchpin, Movistar look very different in 2024, and it's likely the win count will drop, but they still have some big talents on their roster. Liane Lippert and Emma Norsgaard both won stages at the Tour de France Femmes in 2023 and will share responsibility across the Classics, alongside Arlenis Sierra.

On the climbing and GC front, they may have lost developing talent Sarah Gigante, but it's likely that Lippert may grow into an overall contender in her role at Movistar, especially with the likes of Claire Steels and Olivia Baril now in the squad to provide climbing support.

Olivia Baril

Liane Lippert

Arlenis Sierra

Emma Norsgaard

Claire Steels

Mareille Meijering

Paula Patiño

Jelena Eric

Floortje Mackaij

Sheyla Gutierrez

Sara Martín

Aude Biannic

Laura Ruiz Perez

Lucía Ruiz Perez

Cat Ferguson

Women's

Features

Women's Features

Movistar Women Team Talk: Stepping into the post-Van Vleuten era

The turning of the seasons marks an important juncture for the Movistar women’s team. 

, the rider who has spearheaded the team’s rise in recent years, is hanging up her wheels, and although she was only there for three years, it does feel like the end of an era. It certainly feels like the start of a new one, and there’s something of a question mark over Movistar’s position among the established order.

Formed in 2018, the team was, in its early days, made up almost exclusively of Spanish riders, and success was limited. In 2020, however, they ascended to the WorldTour, and in 2021 they signed Van Vleuten and that changed everything.

Having won three races outside of national championships between 2018 and 2020, that figure rose to 19 when Van Vleuten came along. She was not solely responsible for the success, as the team internationalised and grew in quality, but she was the beating heart of the team, winning 29 races over three years, including the Tour de France Femmes, two editions of the Giro d’Italia Donne, and three editions of the Vuelta, plus the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and a world title.

Put simply, she will leave a gaping hole in Movistar’s team, and it’s not hyperbolic to say she’s irreplaceable – at least with the options on this current transfer market. The existential question for Movistar on this changing of the eras, is to what extent the past three years were a one-woman show, and to what extent the team as a whole were able to grow in her slipstream.

Movistar had a strong season, placing fifth in the UCI team rankings, as they did in 2022, and breaking the 20-win barrier for a third year in a row.

What's more, they did so despite Van Vleuten being unable to reach the same heights as the previous campaigns. She won the Giro and the Vuelta, so it was a great season by most standards, but by her own lofty standards there was more than a hint of decline.

Whereas she’d been untouchable in 2022, Van Vleuten looked vulnerable, and certainly less consistent. She’d been the top-ranked rider in the world for the past three years but ended 2023 in fifth place. Most strikingly, she was usurped by her main rival of last year, Demi Vollering, who won the Tour de France and the Ardennes treble. Van Vleuten, meanwhile, was off-colour in the Spring and slumped to fourth at the Tour, and her Vuelta victory came with the caveat of Vollering’s controversial toilet stop.

Most poignantly, the sight of her slipping off the podium in the Tour’s final time trial enhanced that end-of-era feel and, although she bounced back to produce to win the Tour of Scandinavia, her season as a whole would suggest retirement is coming at the right moment.

Aside from the Van Vleuten show, there was a big boost as 

 took a step up in performance, responsibility, and results. The German puncheur knocked on the door for much of the season, but once she’d bagged her second straight national road race title, she came into her own. She landed a fine stage win at the Tour de France, which felt like a big moment, and went on to win a stage of the Tour de Romandie and Tre Valli Varesine. For her efforts, she ended up ninth in the UCI rider rankings.

The team enjoyed a second Tour de France stage win thanks to 

, who showed several flashes of her growing talent. Beyond those riders, there wasn’t a huge amount of depth. Katrine Aalerud, Floortje Mackaij, and Jelena Eric chipped in with wins, while the Cuban Arlenis Sierra was unable to raise her arms outside her national and continental championships, but was the team’s third-biggest points scorer, placing 41st in the rider rankings.

Two Grand Tour victories and two Tour de France stages is still very very good.

Movistar’s Top Five in 2024

It’s unrealistic to expect Movistar to be able to replace Van Vleuten. All-time greats are, naturally, hard to come by. In addition, there wasn’t a rich array of pickings on the transfer market this year, so Movistar head into 2024 with a weakened line-up.

Joining Van Vleuten on the exit list are Aalerud, who’s off to Uno-X, and two Spaniards who’d been there since the start: Lourdes Oyarbide and Alicia González. Coming in are Claire Steels from Israel-Premier Tech Roland, Olivia Baril from UAE Team ADQ, and young Spanish twins Lucia and Laura Ruiz Pérez.

They’ll need time to settle but Steels and Baril will both be expected to be among the team’s chief contributors. In fact, only Lippert was ranked higher than them last year. Baril is an exciting Canadian climber who finished fourth at Itzulia Women and Tour de l’Ardèche, while Steels is already 37 but is a latecomer to the sport who still has a great deal of potential to explore in 2024.

Where Movistar’s wins will come in 2024?

Without Van Vleuten, it’s going to be impossible for Movistar to do the things they’ve done for the past three years. This is now a very different team, and others will need to step up.

Lippert looks like the logical next linchpin. She took another stride towards the world’s best in 2023 and seemed to grow in confidence throughout the season. At 25, and with a greater leadership role awaiting, you sense there’s even more room for her to come into her own in 2024. It could be a really exciting season for the German.

Likewise, Norsgaard has the talent to help Movistar shine on the biggest stages, and she’ll be hoping for more consistency and some more top-level wins after her Tour de France breakthrough. That pair will combine for the Spring Classics, Norsgaard suited to the more rugged Flemish terrain, and Lippert to the hillier stuff.

Of the current crop, Sierra is a rider who has perhaps struggled to adjust to the Euro-centred race scene but never seems too far away from a big win, while Sarah Gigante will be like a new rider after missing much of 2023 through injury. Of the new recruits, Steels and Baril stand out as riders who can realistically expect to come in and produce decent performances in big races.

The question we asked earlier was whether the team had developed with Van Vleuten, rather than simply standing on her shoulders for the past couple of years. That does appear to be the case, with enthusiastic and ambitious management who were under no illusions that these glory years would be everlasting. 2024 is going to be a step back - there’s no avoiding that - but far from a regression to the pre-AVV days.

When it comes to the team’s future, we’ve mentioned the Ruiz Pérez twins - both signed on three-year deals - but the most excitement surrounds Cat Ferguson, an 18-year-old British prospect. Ferguson will only join the team as a stagiaire from August, before going full-time on the WorldTour in 2025, so this is a long shot, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see her showcase a glimpse of her talent in the back-end of next year.

Ferguson is the latest in cycling’s trend of multi-discipline talents who has been prolific at the youth level, this year winning the junior versions of the Tour of Flanders and Trofeo Binda. She’s clearly not going to be a big contributor for Movistar in 2024, but she may just represent Movistar’s long-term future. It would be reckless to anoint any 18-year-old as a successor to Annemiek van Vleuten, but her contract structure, which runs through 2027, shows how Movistar are building their blocks for the future.

What do you think about Movistar’s 2023 season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Racing

News

Race News

'I’d like to have her in the team in the next few years' – Movistar admit interest in Marlen Reusser

While most of the attention in the women’s 

, the name that keeps on cropping up in conversations with riders, agents and teams is 

 are huge admirers of the Swiss rider and are currently working to tempt the 32-year-old away from 

No deal has been reached, according to team boss Sebastián Unzué, but the Spaniard only talked with glowing praise when asked about the possibility of signing the highly respected all-rounder. 

“Who doesn’t want her? Is there any team that doesn’t want her in the peloton? She’s obviously a top-level rider and any manager that you ask about her would be interested in her on the team. I won’t be different in that aspect,” Unzué told 

Unzué admitted that he had tried to secure Reusser’s signature in the past and that the interest remained during this current transfer window. No riders can be announced before the UCI’s 1 August deadline but with SD Worx going through a rebuild following the news that 

Demi Vollering is leaving at the end of the year

, it’s highly likely that more star riders will depart the team over the coming months. 

SD Worx-Protime think Demi Vollering is heading to FDJ-SUEZ

Reusser has been with SD Worx since 2022 and won Gent-Wevelgem in 2023. She’s forged a career as a complete rider, and moving from SD Worx to Movistar would give her a huge step up in terms of leadership opportunities.

“We’ve had a good relationship for a few years, I’ve been interested in the past with having her in the team and every time she’s on the market I’m for sure interested because she’s a top-level rider who has the experience, and has the potential to do big things. It’s a possibility for us but also for many other teams," Unzué said.

"There’s nothing done but the interest for such a top rider is obviously there, like it is for other top riders. I always want the best riders in the team and she falls into that profile and is someone I’d like to have in the team in the next few years. I can’t confirm anything because there’s nothing done but the interest from my side is there. She’s one of the best riders in the peloton. We’re interested if that’s your question,” he added.

Unzué also added that his roster for next year currently stands at 13 riders and that he will look for two additional riders ahead of 2025. He also confirmed that 

 would leave the squad, and that a contract extension was in the works for 33-year-old veteran 

“We have 13 riders under contract and we have one more extension that we’re working on. We have one rider leaving the team in Emma but I don't know where she’s going. There will be a maximum of two new riders and we have two spots to fill in but I can’t tell you who they are.”

Analysis

Vuelta Femenina GC: Vollering and Niewiadoma gain, Realini loses in stage 4 crosswinds

 hasn’t even reached the real hills yet, but the general classification and battle for the red jersey is already starting to take shape after crosswinds and an assault from 

 saw a nearly two-minute gap open between the main favourites on 

 (EF Education-Cannondale) won the stage with a late attack, and 

 (Visma-Lease a Bike) moved into the race lead by virtue of bonus seconds, but it’s further down the GC standings where the intrigue lies.

Vuelta Femenina stage 4: Kristen Faulkner wins thrilling stage with late solo attack

Halfway through the race, with the opening team time trial only offering up small margins of difference, stage 4 saw the first real gaps open up. In the battle of the pre-race favourites, 

 (Canyon-SRAM) were the main beneficiaries, as their efforts in the echelons successfully distanced 

 (Lidl-Trek) who was the big loser of the day, finishing two minutes adrift of the winner.

With some big moves on the GC ahead of the race’s first uphill finish on stage 5, here’s a closer look at the winners and losers at the end of an action-packed day in Spain.

The winners: SD Worx-Protime take control and Vollering benefits

The big winners, and arguably the team that made the race situation what it was, are SD Worx-Protime. As soon as the crosswinds hit 30km into the stage, it was the Dutch team that were drilling it on the front, and they placed five riders in the 19-rider front group, meaning they were able to set the pace and ultimately ensure the move went, and stayed, away. Marlen Reusser and her powerful engine were instrumental in this, and the result was that their leader Demi Vollering jumped up the standings to seventh, with Reusser, Niamh Fisher-Black and Mischa Bredewold all in the top 13.

After SD Worx and Vollering were defeated by a controversially-timed onslaught from Movistar in last year’s Vuelta, the team were clearly keen to flip the narrative this year, and would have been fuelled by revenge as they took it to the likes of Movistar and Lidl-Trek on Wednesday afternoon.

In terms of her GC rivals, Vollering now sits behind only Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) and Riejanne Markus (Visma-Lease a Bike) in the GC, and even then that’s only three and one seconds respectively – not much of a difference. Having Fisher-Black and Reusser in the top 10 also gives the team some strong back-up options. They ceded the race lead as Blanka Vas handed red to Vos, due to bonus seconds, but that's a small price to pay given how well the day went for their main GC hopes.

Though it wasn’t a good day for Realini, her teammate Elisa Longo Borghini did get into the front group, and now sits fourth overall after picking up two bonus seconds in the intermediate sprint. Longo Borghini wasn’t slated to be the team’s leader, but that may change now, and as a non-pure climber, she should benefit from having an advantage over the lighter riders like Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ) and Mavi García (Liv AlUla Jayco). Wednesday’s results could be the difference between a top 10 and a top 5, or better, for the Italian.

Another rider who can be very happy with the outcome of stage 4 is Kasia Niewiadoma, who moves into 10th, and again has a good buffer now over the really pure climbers. The Pole is clearly on good form, and has been fighting for every position and second so far this race, so it’s a big win to take a good chunk of time ahead of the climbs. Riejanne Markus (Visma-Lease a Bike) is also in a good position in sixth ahead of the big climbs, which will be her weakness.

Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ) may be sitting outside the top 10 on GC for now, but have gained on stage 4 by being in the front group, particularly as both were alone in the lead and without support. Time lost in the previous stages has cost them both a little, but as strong climbers they are capable of making that back in the stages to come.

The losers: Realini and Movistar caught out

The main loser on stage 4 was undoubtedly Lidl-Trek’s Gaia Realini, who finished in the second main group, two minutes down on race winner Faulkner and 1:50 down on many of her key GC rivals. Third overall in this race last year, Realini was hoping for another podium this year, but stage 4 has put a hurdle in that plan.

Things went wrong quite quickly for Realini, who was totally out of position when the splits happened, and was as far down as the fourth group before things regrouped into a chase. It’s not fully surprising that a rider as small as Realini should struggle in the crosswinds, but she is usually a fair punchy rider, and there are questions around how Longo Borghini was in the right place but supposed leader Realini was not.

The Italian got back to the second group, and had Lizzie Deignan, Brodie Chapman and Amanda Spratt for company, but Lidl-Trek just couldn’t close the gap to the SD Worx-led group powering on ahead, especially missing powerhouse Ellen van Dijk, who did not start the stage. Realini is ‘only’ 18th on GC after riding well so far this week, but with a 1:50 deficit to close to the likes of Vollering and Niewiadoma, it’s a big ask to save her overall hopes.

The other team who lost out in the crosswinds were Movistar, who are the defending champions in this race, and had the tables turned on them on Wednesday. Their GC interests this week were split between the returning Liane Lippert and Olivia Baril, both hoping for perhaps a top-10 finish, though the podium was probably out of reach, but even this is now a challenge after both riders missed the split and lost time on Wednesday. The Spanish team worked hard to close things down, but ultimately couldn’t, and as all-rounders rather than pure climbers, it’s hard to see where Lippert and Baril might make time back.

Other riders whose GC hopes took a blow on Wednesday include Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) whose depleted squad struggled in the crosswinds, and the Australian is now 2:43 down on red, though this could open up her opportunities for a stage win. Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ) and Mavi García (Liv AlUla Jayco) sit at 2:20, but are in touching distance of the top 10.

EF Education-Cannondale will be celebrating today, having won the stage through Faulkner, who may also be a GC threat, but they saw Kim Cadzow and Magdeleine Vallieres both fall down the rankings, also 2:20 down on the leader.

Of course, in the mountains that are still to come, even two-minute gaps can change quickly, but with most of the strongest GC riders – Vollering, Niewiadoma, Labous – already on the front foot, every rider who lost time in Zaragoza has a big challenge ahead if they want to rescue a top-5 finish

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Name	Age	UCI Career Wins	UCI Points
Olivia Baril	26	5	1376
Liane Lippert	26	9	1178
Arlenis Sierra	31	52	1052
Emma Norsgaard	24	14	599
Claire Steels	37	0	558

Movistar Team

Movistar Team

The Team

Top Movistar Team Stories

Movistar Women Team Talk: Stepping into the post-Van Vleuten era

'I’d like to have her in the team in the next few years' – Movistar admit interest in Marlen Reusser

Vuelta Femenina GC: Vollering and Niewiadoma gain, Realini loses in stage 4 crosswinds

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