4th February 2019
Quintana + recent Vuelta a San Juan victor Anacona to lead Blues at home; Marc Soler to make his 2019 debut. Plus, Valverde set to defend his 2018 title at this week’s Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
Following last week’s success at the Vuelta a San Juan, the Movistar Team will get back together in the next few days at the Antioquia province to take the start on Tuesday 12th February at the 2nd Tour Colombia (UCI 2.1), a six-day event through Sunday 17th.
Pablo Lastras will conduct a six-man squad quite similar to the one claiming overall honours in Argentina. Catalan Marc Soler, already staying in Antioquia since last week, will be the only change into a roster which features locals Winner Anacona and Nairo Quintana; Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz; Argentinian allrounder Eduardo Sepúlveda; and another Spaniard in Jorge Arcas.
The Tour Colombia’s route includes an opening TTT, 14km in length, in and around Medellín, finishing up with the Alto de las Palmas climb (16km at 6% avg.), nearly 2,500m above sea level, on Sunday. Between those, the riders will tackle flat stages and some hillier terrains -into Saturday’s La Unión circuit-, always in considerable altitude.
Before the Colombian race, this week (Wednesday 6th – Sunday 10th), Alejandro Valverde will again lead the Movistar Team at the 70th edition of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, where the Spaniard will defend his 2018 title. Local rider Rafa Valls, Jürgen Roelandts -winner of a stage in the event last year-, Rubén Fernández, Nelson Oliveira, Carlos Verona and Héctor Carretero will support the World Champion at a race including an opening ITT (10km with an uphill finish in Orihuela), a mountain-top arrival -to Alcossebre, on Saturday- and a couple of intriguing, hilly finishes on Thursday and Friday.
