With 182 victories and 1.7 million kilometers ridden since 2011, the Movistar team has been an unqualified success for Spain’s Telefónica since they joined as title sponsor in 2011. Now, Telefónica has renewed their sponsorship through 2019.
The renewal was announced today at a special event at Telefónica headquarters in Madrid as the company and cycling corporation Abarca Sports signed the extension of their partnership, which will see the Pamplona-based squad continuing to wear the Movistar for three more years. The gathering, consisting of a press conference followed by a presentation with Telefónica employees, was attended by Carlos López Blanco, Head of Public and Regulation Affairs for Telefónica, and Movistar Team general manager Eusebio Unzué, as well as riders Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde. At the Central Building in Telefónica’s Madrid complex, celebrations continued from the eve’s historic victory by Quintana in the Vuelta a España, his second Grand Tour success after the 2014 Giro d’Italia. The final red jersey worn by the Colombian was notably featuring at the event, where Unzué also announced contract renewals for Quintana (through 2019) and Valverde, the latter set to be signed in the next few days.
“We’ve got the best team in the world at the moment,” expressed López Blanco during the press conference. “The sporting results can hardly be better; our brand exposure and positioning are excellent all over the world, especially in Spain and Latin America, essential markets for Telefónica; and above everything else, this team represents bond and friendliness like no other. Our progression on digital media has been constant all over these six years, and as with all previous aspects, makes us satisfied and proud to have joined our name to cycling in this team. Enjoying results like this Vuelta win by Nairo Quintana is sensational. We’ve got tremendous confidence on the future of the team and our collaboration with them.”
In similar terms, joyful and full of gratitude towards Telefónica, spoke Unzué, who will see his project reaching 40 years of uninterrupted activity at the end of the new term: “At Telefónica, you were brave when you took that gamble for cycling in such a difficult moment, and we can’t thank you enough for that. It makes us happy to put a smile on the face of so many people. We’ve got a strong team in Alejandro, Nairo and all their team-mates, and now that both are ser to continue, our goal for this new, three-year term is leading cycling as we did for the past six season. We now start working on building a good future for the squad and bringing Telefónica more reasons to remain confident about what we can do.”
The signing of this new, three-year contract between Telefónica and Abarca Sports is the fruit of full confidence in an utterly successful sporting project –three consecutive UCI WorldTour titles (2013-15), the Blues also leading in 2016 with just three events remaining; more than 180 victories in the most important races around the world– which also reflects some of the company’s core values: effort, tenacity, gentleness, respect for the environment and passion towards technology and all opportunities it offers in the world nowadays. At the latter, the Movistar Team has always revealed itsefl as one of Telefónica’s best ambassadors: 1,100,000 people follow the team -a figure almost doubled since the start of the 2016 season- through its different social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and SoundCloud, combined with the official websitewww.movistarteam.com.
During these six years, and thanks to tight cooperation between Telefónica and Abarca Sports, those fans have been able to know better one of the toughest sports in the world, through all kinds of initiatives. Recreational rides, such as the Marchas Ciclistas Movistar or the Fiesta de la Bici Movistar, have taken the green ‘M’ to all points of Spain; the roads of the Tour and La Vuelta –or even some innovative challenges, like the #RetosMovistarTeam- have been covered with team shirts; and even away from those roads, games likes Chapas, developments on Augmented Reality and 360º video, sports fans have got closer to a team that will continue to pursuit success and prestige for another three seasons.
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