Movistar Team’s future up in the air? Title sponsor wants out of its contract, according to Bloomberg

Telefónica has been the sole title-naming-rights sponsor of Eusebio Unzué’s men’s cycling team since 2011, and of the women’s team since its creation in 2018. So for the past 16 years, the team as a whole has carried the Movistar name and ‘M’ logo of the company’s leading network provider across Spain and South America (it also runs O2 in the UK).

It’s that South American market that’s key, according to Bloomberg, which notes that Telefónica has been selling off the majority of its operations there and focusing on Spain. The sponsorship was arguably at its peak when the Colombian Nairo Quintana emerged as a megastar at the 2013 Tour de France and went on to win the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España.

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Telefónica is reportedly revising its marketing budget as part of a wider overhaul of the business, and executives have reportedly been influenced by the shifting sands of pro cycling sponsorships.

WorldTour budgets have skyrocketed in recent years, with big money pouring in from the Middle East and a new development in major corporations not only sponsoring teams but taking ownership of them, as in the case of Red Bull, Lidl, and Decathlon.

At the same time, Movistar’s men’s team have slipped in status since Quintana’s glory days and since the retirement of stalwart Alejandro Valverde four years ago.

The women’s team, meanwhile, have risen to establish themselves as one of the sport’s leading forces, winning the first edition of the Tour de France Femmes with Annemiek van Vleuten in 2022 and now counting the likes of Marlen Reusser and Cat Ferguson in the squad.

Cyclingnews has contacted Movistar Team for comment.