It’s business as usual at Movistar, new signing Mikel Landa (Team Sky) has insisted, and in a good way, too. After last month’s controversial interview in which Landa expressed uncertainty about how warm a welcome he would receive from future teammate – and tried-and-tested Grand Tour contender – Nairo Quintana, when it actually came to meeting at the Movistar training camp, the two are, he says, getting on well.
The ice appears to have been broken at a ‘rookie party’ held at Halloween in honour of the new signings for 2018 in Movistar, complete with practical jokes and disguises. Website Ciclo21 reported that during the festivities, thanks to some senior teammates, Quintana and Landa were handcuffed together, with – in keeping with the prison ‘theme’ – the Basque rider dressed in a convict’s outfit. It almost goes without saying that Landa was made to carry a sign with his fans’ battle-cry of ‘Free Landa.’
By Friday, a soon-to-be emancipated Landa, now wearing his ‘civilian’ clothing, said his programme for 2018 remained undecided. But the Basque recognised that there could well be points where his and Quintana’s objectives would overlap, most notably at the Tour de France. That said, he has yet to rule out racing the Giro d’Italia in 2018 instead of the Tour, given Landa has what he terms “unfinished business” with the Italian Grand Tour, where he finished third in 2015.
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Landa said that once the rookie party rites of passage were done and dusted, he felt “good, because it’s a way of getting over any sense of shyness and it makes it easier to fit in. I don’t really use the ‘Free Landa’ slogan as a demand, it’s more something my teammates at Sky came up with in the Tour as kind of a joke.”
There has been a sense of homecoming for Landa in other ways, too, at Movistar. “These team get-togethers tend to be similar no matter which squad you’re in, but the atmosphere here is different. No matter how much you learn the language of the team you’re in, it’s not so easy to share in things like the sense of humour. Here it’s easier to integrate in that way.”
Landa says that rather than having a calendar imposed upon him by Movistar, they have left it up to him to express his preferences. “Maybe initially I won’t get to do all the races I want to, but I think long-term this was the right team to sign for,” he said.
Giro appeal
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