Movistar haven't won at the Tour de France since 2019 when Nairo Quintana, El Cóndor de los Andes, soared to victory in Valloire. Under its former guise of Banesto, the team dominated the Tour in the 90s during the era of Miguel Indurain, and since then has never gone this long without a win on the sport's biggest stage. The Spanish outfit is looking to the arduous stage nine to end that drought.
"It's no secret," Matt White, the experienced sports director told Rouleur. "We've got seven guys going for the break. There's no one holding back. The only one maybe is Michel Hessmann, just because he's been ill. We were all over it at the Giro, and we'll be all over it here."
Stage nine from Malemort to Ussel has been shortened by 30km due to the ongoing heatwave in France. But White and his riders had their eye on Sunday's stage long before Météo-France announced the red alert for the department of Corrèze.
"It's a pretty nasty [stage]. There are technical and narrow roads, with an established GC as it is at the moment, it's certainly got breakaway written all over it," explained White.
Movistar lost their general classification leader Cian Uijtdebroeks on stage six and now are refocusing their ambitions. After a Grand Départ dominated by general classification riders, a large portion of the peloton got the same idea: if they don't go for breakaways, the road could run out for them at this Tour.
"We haven't got a lot of opportunities, so you can't just forget about a stage and not go for it," said White. The Tour isn't even at its first rest day and it feels like the clock is ticking.
This can be a blessing and a curse for teams like Movistar. With so much eagerness, the breakaways are likely to get away from the clutches of the hungry UAE Team Emirates-XRG riders. But it also means the battle at the start of the day will be fierce – and long, like on stage four to Foix. During the early skirmishes of stages, sports directors like White will be on the radios in the ears of their riders. If they don't have a rider in a move, they will have to pull it back.
"A big thing is how long it will take for the breakaway to form. There won't be too many teams not trying to get in the break. Teams that don't have a sprinter or a GC rider need to get in the break. The issue is, they either get in it or they don't. They've got to be in it or they will pull it back. It's as simple as that.
"We saw Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe the other day on stage four. They'd missed the move. No one really expected them to want to be in it. But, they shut it down, it kicked off again and another 15 riders went across."
With Uijtdebroeks out, Movistar have no general classification ambitions, with their highest representation on the overall being Pablo Castrillo in 22nd. What will complicate the picture is the other teams in the same position.
"What happens now is the longer we go into the race, the harder it is actually to make the breakaway because you'll have all the guys who started off as big GC guys falling out of the overall and making the decision that it's more important for them and the team to win a stage than finish 12th on general classification. Take Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), for example. You don't want to come up against him in a breakaway. He's a killer when it comes to winning from breaks."
The route from Malemort to Ussel is shorter, but the battle to get to the front is expected to be long. Could sports directors strike a deal from their cars to get the breakaway settled early?
"That kind of thing went out the window in the 90s, mate."
The 90s – Movistar's good old days.
