In what could be the most open, closest-fought Tour de France for years, Spain's Movistar outfit at least appears to have made things a little more difficult for themselves by throwing their support behind not one or two team leaders, but three.
With the introduction of eight-rider teams for 2018 – versus the 'usual' nine – sending what is now over a third of your roster to the race in a leadership role looks decidedly like that 'too many chiefs' cliché. Certainly, the five remaining riders will have their work cut out in the opening week if all three leaders require their help and protection, even if by the time the mountains come around, more of a pecking order will be naturally decided. Here, we analyse the eight Movistar riders' likely roles.
All three team leaders – Alejandro Valverde, Nairo Quintana and Mikel Landa – have suggested that the pecking order will indeed be decided on the road, but while a 'two-pronged attack', often with a 'plan A' and a 'plan B', seems like a sensible approach from teams serious about the overall Tour title, Movistar may end up tripping and pricking themselves in the bottom with this trident.
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We can, however, imagine a scenario in which Valverde takes the race lead following stage 6 and its 'summit finish' on the Mûr de Bretagne, and then, come the high mountains, Valverde settles into more of a super-domestique-cum-road-captain role.
But that still leaves Quintana and Landa as two extremely capable climbers, both with the ability to take a podium place, and in fact both experienced enough, and good enough, to win the whole thing.
A luxury problem? Perhaps. Many teams would give their back wheels to have just one rider with Quintana, Landa, or indeed Valverde's abilities. Yet for the sake of a harmonious three weeks, it can sometimes pay to have every team member's role strictly defined well before embarking on something as stressful as a Tour de France.
Movistar's Tour de France team
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