{"id":940619,"date":"2026-10-25T17:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T17:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/940619\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T17:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T17:22:11","slug":"paula-blasi-speaks-out-after-transfer-to-the-uae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/940619\/","title":{"rendered":"Paula Blasi Speaks Out After Transfer to the UAE"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took a long time\u2014a very long time\u2014before the drama surrounding Paula Blasi<\/a> finally came to an end. The Spanish rider was set to leave UAE Team L’Imad, and this month it was finally announced that she will ride for Movistar next year<\/a>. But her departure from the Emirati team turned out to be far from easy. The 23-year-old climber was no longer happy with the team.Even before the Tour de France Femmes<\/a>\u2014where Blasi finished fifth and won the white jersey\u2014it was essentially already decided that the young Spaniard would be leaving the team. That\u2019s why she wasn\u2019t sent to the Tour as the team leader, despite her incredible year. And even after the Tour, things remained difficult. \u201cIt was incredibly frustrating,\u201d she says in an interview with Laura Alvarez on YouTube<\/a>. \u201cThey didn\u2019t make it easy for me to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blasi\u2019s contract was still in effect, but the buyout clause was relatively low. Still, UAE Team L\u2019Imad tried everything to keep her.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven after I paid the buyout clause, they weren\u2019t satisfied and kept asking for a lot of money. Since I was earning the minimum wage\u2014which is what I\u2019ve been earning all year\u2014I obviously couldn\u2019t afford to pay that anymore. It was very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attitude of her former team greatly disappointed the winner of the Amstel Gold Race and the Vuelta Femenina. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more than resentment; it\u2019s disappointment. I understand that it\u2019s a job and that this is a business, but ultimately, cycling\u2014more than other jobs\u2014requires a human touch. You have to keep people happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"paula-blasi\"\/Blasi on friction at UAE: ‘More of a battle than a team race’<\/p>\n

The disappointment also seeped into her work. UAE Team L’Imad often fielded a strong, deep roster, but that didn’t work well for Blasi. It often led to friction among the contenders. \u201cIf three, four, or five of us can win and no one is dictating the pace, it becomes more of a battle than a team race.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also laments the role of the team managers in that process. According to her, not enough was done to provide clarity ahead of an important race. \u201cI think you have to be a leader in a race, not in a negotiation. At UAE, it sometimes seemed as if the riders had to maintain order because the management didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Tour de France Femmes, things came to a head. Blasi was cast as a domestique, but turned out to be one of the team\u2019s best riders. With all the transfer rumors swirling, she was often swamped by journalists, but she credits Elisa Longo Borghini with providing a sense of calm within the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe brought a little more calm. I saw headlines that made me not want to give any more interviews. I trusted her more than I trusted myself, because it was my first Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"paula-blasi\"\/Will Blasi and Reusser be co-leaders at the Tour de France Femmes?At Movistar, Blasi will have more clarity. It feels like coming home to the Spanish team, where she\u2019ll be a team leader alongside Marlen Reusser. <\/p>\n

But despite the presence of the Swiss star, she doesn\u2019t have to worry about finding herself in another difficult situation. Everything has been discussed at length from the very beginning.<\/p>\n

And so Reusser will likely ride the Giro d’Italia, while Blasi defends her title in the Vuelta. As for the Tour de France, it\u2019s still up in the air\u2014the same goes for Reusser. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty clear. If it\u2019s approved and we\u2019re both in good shape when the Tour starts, my goal is for us to ride together. The Ardennes classics are still a bit up in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It took a long time\u2014a very long time\u2014before the drama surrounding Paula Blasi finally came to an end.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,39552,321074,85,22234,237660,23293],"class_list":["post-940619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-movistar-team","tag-paula-blasi","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-france-femmes","tag-uae-team-adq","tag-womens-cycling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}