Movistar Team has announced a press conference for today with "important information" about their future. Cyclingnews.com will be there to update you live from this event.

17:55: Hello to everyone out there. We update you live from the hotel of Movistar Team where the team's traditional rest day press conference will take place. They have announced some big news about next season. They want to start at the full hour.

17:57: The last days a few rumours were spread along the cycling fans that the team wants to bring in some new faces. Several names were discussed heavily in the fan forums. Christiano de los Campos, Gorka Nieve and Delfi Cervero were only a few of those that were connected to the team. It seems possible that one of them will be presented today.

18:00: Exactly on time, the PR manager of Movistar step onto the podium and greets the journalists that are waiting. Some spanish TV channels were even there with their cameras.

18:02: The presentation starts with an image film about the past of the team. Pedro Delgado, Miguel Indurain, Oscar Pereiro and Alejandro Valverde are shown with their biggest successes for the team. All of them have won a GT in the jersey of one of Movistar's former sponsors.

18:07: It continues with a summary of this year's season. Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana have the honour of being the protagonists in this short video clip. The PR man ends the speak with the words "We have the hope that we can extend the previous image film with another GT win once this TDF is over. On this first rest day, we are exactly there where we wanted to be and both Valverde and Quintana still have the chance to win it all.

Christiano de los Campos, Gorka Nieve and Delfi Cervero were only a few of those that were connected to the team. It seems possible that one of them will be presented today.

18:11: The team uses this conference to announce the first selection of 15 riders for the Vuelta a Espana. All of them are spanish. Here is the full list: Castroviejo, Cobo, del Pino, Gutierrez, Herrada, Herrada, Intxausti, Lastras, Madrazo, Moreno, Plaza, Rojas, Sanz, Teruel, Valverde.
The 9 men squad will be announced shortly before the Vuelta starts.

18:15: The DS Michael Schröder steps onto the podium. Now, it gets interesting.

18:16: " For decades of cycling we were known to be one of the best teams in climbing. Fans from all over the world love us for that. And we were good in it. Really good. But sometimes being really good is not good enough. We want to aim bigger. We want to win more races. We want to dominate more. That is why we are here today. This is why we are presenting you the newest signing of our team:"

18:18: " The last month we had tried again and again to talk him into signing with us. We finally met in a classic trattoria to negotiate with him and after some bottles of good Chianti we could finally get him connected to us. Ladies and Gentlemen, we proudly present:

18:19: Carlo Calzone!

18:20: We are sure that he will give our squad a major improvement as it gives us a completely new chance to win races where we could only sent a squad in the past that is only capable of winning from an early break. Also, it will give us new tactical options so that we do not have to attack to win.

18:24: Of course this has to cause some more changes in the off season. The work in the background to get some more men for the sprinting departement has already began. It may take until the season is over to see the whole picture of our new team but i want to promise you that we will stay competitive and that we will try to get even better.

18:27: That's it for now. If you have any questions feel free to ask us but please understand that some things have to be kept under privacy for now. If there aren't any questions I want to thank you for your presence and i wish you a thrilling Tour de France to watch. Thanks for joining!"

Hello Ilja,

great to see you on board to join our little crew. We as a team are so glad about your signing as it will give us completely new chances we did not had before.

Two of our riders need an extra-mention: On the one side there is our newest team member Carlo Calzone, who was so exited that he bombarded me with voice messages crying out loudly how happy he is that his promised leadout is already getting his shape.

On the other side there is Vladimir Karpets who is sad that he cannot drink everybody else under the table anymore since you already have quite a lot experience with Vodka (that was what he said).

Oh and you would surely like to know that you did not only made one spanish team happy but two: Another spanish team feared us as a big rival on the rider market especially after some rumours came up that we would be interested in two big spanish talents. If he only knew that those were only fake informations by the media and that we never contacted any of the reported names...

Again a happy welcome and we wish you all the best for the time living here,
Michael Schröder
DS of Movistar Team

We came home to the most beautiful race of the season with some big expectations. With multiple reasons to expect big things from our guys we would not be easy satisfied. Only some reasons for those big expectations :

- No other team has two former Vuelta GC winners in their line-up.
- Having lost the Giro due to crashes and the Tour on the last mountain stage is crying for revenge.
- Road Knowledge. No other team knows the Spanish routes better than our 9 spanish riders.

5 days of the most interesting race of the year have been passed and we want to use the chance to update you a bit with what have happened in the meantime:

The situation is quite okay with Valverde in the GC lead and already the first stage wins.

Nevertheless, it could be better:

- We only finished 3rd in the opening TTT. Having won last year's TTT this surely isnt enough.
- 6 of our riders have not managed to win a stage yet. Other team's outcome has been worse but still: We want more!
- None of our riders is in the top 50 in the youth classification. Having won the white jersey in Le Tour this is a huge step into the wrong direction!

We hope things will develop into the right direction from now on!

Ollfardh wrote:
Shut up

We are not considered outsiders but with a good depth of good time triallists we cannot get underestimated. Our strength is the lack of a weak link but we lack the top man against the clock that Sky has to offer. The fact that Omega Pharma wasnt interested in this race is surely in our favour.

With some stars in the start list like Kim Po-Ding from the Glourious Republic of Korea all of our riders are there mainly for experience. Jesus is targeting a top ten result which seems quite realistic for once.

This race features 4 of our young talents but we have to admit that all of them are in helping roles. Of course we hope that one of them might be part of a strategy that favours them but a success seems quite unrealistic. (Better chances has my son Christian who rides for Germany and has a great team behind him.)

We are not aiming for the win here but we want to see multiple good results from our guys. 4 of our 5 guys are also lined up for the team time trial.

We hope that one of our guys can wear the rainbow jersey next year. With multiple top favourites from our squad in Valverde, Costa and Quintana we rate our chances quite high. We wish all of them the maximum success possible.

Ollfardh wrote:
Last one should probably read road race

Hello Albert,

Team Movistar wishes you all the best on your further paths. We really appreciated that you decided to ride for our team last year. Unfortunatelly, this step has proven to be too big for you for now and thus, it was the right decision to move into the continental devision for the next season.

We hope that you will show your talent there to the world and we are still believing in your potential. The door for a comeback will open again should the opportunity come.

See you soon on the road,
Michael Schröder
DS Movistar Team