Everything changes around us, executives from auditing companies take command of the teams, which they direct with one eye on the income statement and another on the list of victories, and without losing sight of technological and scientific news that they receive daily. startups of dreaming engineers that sprout like mushrooms; beardless and acne-stricken young people proclaim their superiority on the road; lifelong cyclists hang up their bikes; millionaire fans devote themselves to two wheels; wise men of big data and AI with computers in every corner. Figures that seemed eternal such as Patrick Lefévère, the boss of Quick Step, or Vincent Lavenu, of Ag2r, have proceeded to their forced retirement. The cycling landscape has changed at all. Everything is new. All? No. Eusebio Unzue, 69 years old, is still like this, firm, immovable. A dinosaur? The last dinosaur to survive the ice age? Yes, perhaps, and also a totem of old cycling, director of Reynolds already in 1984, renovated, rejuvenated, in the Telefónica skyscraper on Madrid’s Gran Vía who smiles happily because José María Álvarez Pallete, the head of all that, has just publicly announce that his company will continue sponsoring the Unzue cycling team for five more years: there will be Movistar in the WorldTour pelotons, the men’s and women’s, until 31 December 2029. At least.
“And I will continue with everything. I don’t have the feeling that I have to retire too,” says Unzue during the presentation of the teams for next season. “The president’s announcement is the most emotional moment. The extension of a sponsorship that began in 2011 has made me very happy, and it will be at least 19 years with us. Something inconceivable, almost, that Telefónica continues to endure despite these last difficult years that we have gone through.”
It is the first time that in their common journey such a long renewal agreement has been reached, which allows Unzue, apart from a sigh of relief, a small dose of optimism towards the future. “Many times we have not been able to convince the youngest talents in Spanish cycling to come with us because we could not offer them a long-term project. Now that has changed. Now we will have weapons to fight, to be on par with the best,” says Unzue, with his sights set on other teams, such as UAE, Trek, Red Bull or Visma, which offer almost lifelong contracts to emerging cyclists, and thinking about new Spanish gems such as Pablo Torres, Héctor Álvarez, Pau Martí or Adrià Pericas, who have signed abroad. “We will also have time to consolidate young people.”
The young people with the team’s projection, such as Iván Romeo, 21, world champion under-23 time trial, or the recently signed Pablo Castrillo, 23 and winner of two major stages in the last Vuelta, will probably make their debut in the Tour, where they will will be supported by the team’s natural leader, Enric Mas, who at 30 years old (he will turn 30 on January 7) will repeat the calendar (Tour and Vuelta) for the sixth consecutive year. “We cannot give up the Tour and the best race for Enric is the Vuelta,” summarizes Unzue. The Giro will continue to be an unknown race for the Mallorcan, four times on the podium in the Spanish round. The youngest of all, the Colombian promise Diego Pescador, 20 years old, is a longer-term project. “He is a young man with slower progression,” estimates Unzue. “Until he is 26 or 27 years old he will not be able to do great things.”
The rest of the team is what Unzue calls a very good middle class, despite the departure to Red Bull of Oier Lazkano, their best classicist. “And let’s not forget Nairo Quintana, who will lead Movistar in the Giro d’Italia alongside Einer Rubio. And I hope that Nairo is much better than last year, when the falls and the 15 months he was away from the peloton affected him so much,” says the general manager of Movistar, who began his career as director of the amateur Reynolds in 1980 and went on to lead the first team of Perico Delgado, the first Tour for Spain since 1973, and José Luis Laguía together with José Miguel Echávarri in 1984. The team continued to grow with the sponsorship of Banesto, and the five Tours of Indurain, between 1989 and 2003. It was later Illes Balears (2004 and 2005) and Caisse d’Épargne (2006-2010), and the Tour of Pereiro. Echávarri retired. Movistar arrived. Valverde remained until he was 42 years old. Unzue continues. No known expiration date.
