Young riders bolster strength of Spanish WorldTour squad
Continuing to build the strength of the team, Movistar has signed deals with two twenty five year old riders for 2014 and 2015.
The Italian Adriano Malori is one of the two, moving across to the team from his current Lampre-Merida squad.
After winning the national time trial championship in 2011, Malori finished second and third in the years since. His strength against the clock saw him take a TT stage in this year’s Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali plus the time trial and the overall in the 2013 Bayern Rundfarht.
He will be an important addition to the team, not least in helping the squad in team time trials .
The second signing is the Basque rider Gorka Izagirre, who has been racing with the Euskatel Euskadi team since 2010. He was seventh overall in the Tour Down Under this year and last season won the Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia. He also took a stage of the Tour of Luxembourg in 2010.
Izagirre went close to clocking up a stage win in last year’s Tour de France, riding aggressively on several stages.
His Euskaltel Euskadi team has been racing under a question mark due to the decision of the sponsors not to renew their backing. It was recently announced that Formula One driver Fernando Alonso would buy the WorldTour licence and set up a new team.
However Izagirre is moving on rather than staying put, transferring to race alongside riders such as Alejandro Valverde.
On Sunday Valverde took third overall plus the points jersey in the Vuelta a España.