Movistar has strengthened its squad with a major Spanish talent. Ra\u00fal Garc\u00eda Pierna has signed a three-year contract with the team. After two loyal years, he will leave Ark\u00e9a\u2013B&B Hotels. It marks the team\u2019s fourth departure, while not a single new signing has come in. And none are likely, given the bleak situation the French squad is facing.<\/p>\n
Back in June, it was announced that not only Ark\u00e9a but also B&B Hotels would withdraw as sponsors. That meant the team had to urgently search for replacements, but that hunt appears to have hit a dead end. So far, no new backer has been found, and time is running out. \u201cWe have one bullet left,\u201d said manager Emmanuel Hubert: one last chance, otherwise the French team is finished.<\/p>\n
Quite a few riders have chosen not to wait around in uncertainty: they cut their losses and left Ark\u00e9a\u2013B&B Hotels. Jenthe Biermans moved to Cofidis, Norwegian climber Martin Tj\u00f8tta returned home to Uno-X Mobility, and classics specialist Luca Mozzato, runner-up at last year\u2019s Tour of Flanders, signed with Tudor. That was the start of the exodus, and with Garc\u00eda Pierna\u2019s departure, it has gained a new dimension.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old Spaniard came over from Equipo Kern Pharma after 2023 and was primarily known as an excellent time trialist. But this year he also showed himself in the high mountains: he finished 26th in the Tour de France and sat 14th overall after nine days at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, with two top-five stage finishes. However, he was forced to abandon that race after a crash. A week later, he leaves his team altogether.<\/p>\n
Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n
Garc\u00eda Pierna arrives in a familiar environmentAt Movistar, the all-rounder hopes to take the next step. \u201cSigning with Movistar Team<\/a> is truly fantastic,\u201d he said on his new team\u2019s website<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s Spain\u2019s only WorldTour team, with a long history and many great riders who have raced here, so I\u2019m thrilled.\u201d The Madrid native has signed a three-year deal with Movistar.<\/p>\n He sees the transfer as a clear step up. \u201cI\u2019m drawn to the whole setup of the team, the staff is excellent. And of course the riders too, with many guys around my age that I know well. That\u2019s another big plus. That\u2019s why I\u2019m so eager to compete in the best races in the world with Movistar.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Movistar has strengthened its squad with a major Spanish talent. Ra\u00fal Garc\u00eda Pierna has signed a three-year contract…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-129531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}