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Mikel Landa, fourth overall in last month's Tour de France, moves from Team Sky to Movistar

Basque rider should "lead Spanish cycling for the next few years," says Movistar general manager Eusebio Unzué ...

Mikel Landa, who finished fourth overall at the Tour de France last month and in May took the mountains classification at the Giro d'Italia, is moving from Team Sky to Movistar on a two-year contract commencing 1 January 2018.

With Nairo Quintana looking set to stay with Movistar for next season despite reports of the Colombian being unsettled there, and Alejandro Valverde approaching the end of his career, the switch will give the Spanish UCI WorldTour team another option in Grand Tour leadership as the Basque rider moves into what are likely to be the prime years of his career.

The news was confirmed in a statement today from Movistar, which has hailed the 27-year-old as Spain's rising star in three-week stage races.

Landa won the mountains jersey at May's Giro d'Italia, having started the race as Team Sky's co-leader alongside Geraint Thomas. but lost time after crashing in the same incident that led to the Welshman departing the race a few days later, ruling him out of contention for the general classification.

At the Tour de France, he was Chris Froome's strongest domestique, finishing fourth overall, but Landa seemed frustrated at having to play a supporting role with tensions apearing particularly high after Stage 12 to Peyragudes when his team leader and eventual overall winner cracked on the short but tough final ascent to Peyragudes in the Pyrenees.

He was pipped to a place on the podium by just one second by AG2R-La Mondiale rider, Romain Bardet who dug deep to hold off Landa's challenge on the penultimate day's individual time trial in Marseille.

Movistar general manager Eusebio Unzué said: “It's great news for us. Being still a young rider and with everything that's he's shown, he should be the rider who leads Spanish cycling for the next few years."

A past stage winner at both the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta, Landa last week took the overall, points and mountains jerseys at the five-day Spanish stage race, the Vuelta a Burgos, and last year won the overall at the Giro del Trentino.

He joined Team Sky at the start of the 2016 season after spending the previous two seasons with Astana, moving to the Kazakh outfit after his former Euskaltel-Euskadi team folded in late 2013.

 

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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10 comments

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alansmurphy | 7 years ago
1 like

Not sure he could make the course any more Bardet friendly with the lack of TT miles this year.

TdM, Porte, Landa, Martin, Froome and many many others will be in a position to jump him next year.

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MandaiMetric | 7 years ago
0 likes

This just made life harder for Gouvenou if his plan was to design a course to specifically advantage Bardet next year.

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Stumps | 7 years ago
0 likes

G is a great rider but nowhere near the quality of Landa. If Landa improves his TT riding he'll win multiple grand tours. 

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psling | 7 years ago
0 likes

Maybe Sky don't want a repeat of the Wiggins - Froome debate when Froome rode away from Wiggins on one mountain stage and was proclaimed to be the better rider who should have been allowed to ride on to the tour win.

Repeat in this years TdF with Landa riding away from Froome and having to be called back....

Landa deserves his chance and he won't get it in the major tours at Sky, especially whilst G is still about.

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P3t3 | 7 years ago
0 likes

What is it about the guy that almost made it?  I'd really like to see Landa lead Movistar in the next tour, on the form he had this year.  He just looks so cool on the bike.  

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Dunkeldog | 7 years ago
2 likes

I suspect Sky would have had to move heaven and earth and Froome to keep him!

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Stumps | 7 years ago
0 likes

Sky should have moved heaven and earth to keep him. He's a natural successor to Froome

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RobD | 7 years ago
0 likes

I'd like to see him do well, and if Movistar back him for races then he'd certainly have a team behind him that could compete. It'll be interesting to see how he deals with the pressure of being a team leader in a grand tour although it seems like he's pretty relaxed in most races anyway.

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Martyn_K | 7 years ago
1 like

Movistar should be building a TdF team around Landa. Forget Quintina for the annual french fiesta as his TT is just not good enough. Could be an interesting 2018 edition if Doumoulin goes for GC too.

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don simon fbpe | 7 years ago
0 likes

Zorionak Mikel!

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