Dani Moreno, 34, was one of Movistar's final signings for 2016, but he has hardly needed much time to familiarize himself with the Spanish squad. Movistar, then sponsored by Caisse d’Epargne, was his first ever ProTour team in 2008 and 2009 – and, in many ways, the Spanish veteran is going back to his racing roots.
A talented Ardennes Classics, Grand Tour and week-long stage race specialist, arguably Moreno’s only real weak spot is the cobbled Classics. The versatile rider had two near misses this season in high-level hilly one-day racing, breaking away in the final kilometre of Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and finishing a strong second in Il Lombardia.
That said, Moreno’s last minute attack in La Doyenne was essentially to act as a foil for team leader Rodriguez, and in Il Lombardia, barring a complete disaster for lone breakaway Vincenzo Nibali, Moreno was essentially racing for second.
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His one win in 2015 was a summit finish at the Vuelta a Burgos on the notoriously difficult Lagunas de Neila climb as he built his form for the Vuelta, where he claimed ninth overall. The result was his fourth top ten finish in the Spanish Grand Tour in five years. These results, along with Moreno well-established domestique work for Rodriguez, were enough to convince Movistar that they should open up a spot for the Spaniard. In 2016, Moreno will, therefore, once again find himself riding for Alejandro Valverde, as he did in 2008 and 2009 before spending a lacklustre year in Lotto, and then moving onto Katusha in 2011.
When asked about Moreno’s departure, his long-standing team leader at the Russian squad, Joaquim Rodriguez, says it was a hard blow, personally, for him to take. But Moreno’s exit was also, he says, expected and, up to a point, a necessary move for the Madrileño to make.
“In the final year he wasn’t so happy in Katusha even if he was happy with our particular group of riders. I knew it was likely to happen, and he remains a friend, but it’s still painful,” Rodriguez told Cyclingnews.
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