Movistar's long-standing team manager Eusebio Unzue has said he will be setting the bar high for his new marquee signing, Mikel Landa (Team Sky), and that he expects the 27-year-old Basque to become the new standard-bearer for Spanish cycling.
When a country's most promising Grand Tour racer signs for his country's biggest team, one of the key questions fans ask themselves is exactly what the squad and the rider think he will be capable of achieving. And in the case of Landa, Unzue argues, the long-term target has to be to make him Spain's "standard-bearer": in other words, its top racer.
There are obvious caveats to that in the short-term, given teammate Alejandro Valverde - his serious Tour de France crash notwithstanding - is still racking up the victories, and last season, even with the Tour, was Valverde's best. All this at 37, lest we forget.
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But, Alberto Contador's retirement means there is more of a gap to be filled for Spain when it comes to Grand Tour contenders, and Unzue feels Landa, at 27, has begun to show much greater consistency in his stage racing. It's time for the bar to be raised for his new signing.
"The best of Landa is yet to come," Unzue told a small group of reporters, including Cyclingnews, at a press conference on Friday. "He's a great rider but the results were patchier up until 2017, when something clicked, something changed. That greater consistency and his better time trialling, as he's shown throughout the year, is important. Plus he's at the ideal age to go for Grand Tours."
There is no question of Landa usurping Valverde's position either in the team or in Spanish cycling. For Unzue, Landa forms part more of a mid-to-long term project. "Alejandro seems to be inexhaustible, but we don't actually know how long for. We've got a lot of young riders coming up, too, in the squad. So Mikel is the man who has to become the standard-bearer for Spanish cycling in the future."
Successfully navigating co-leadership
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