FROM MALLORCA TO MALLORCA
Mallorca’s agricultural village of Ses Salines has little about it that is remarkable, and the Carrer Ramon Llull street on its outskirts, even less so. Carrer Ramon Llull is a broad highway between weatherbeaten agricultural buildings and sturdy-looking rural residences made from the plentiful local limestone. When the combined Movistar forces of one team bus and three team cars draws up here for in late January for the opening day’s racing of the 2020 Mallorca Challenge, the only hints of life on Carrer Ramon Llull are a parked tractor, a Land Rover and three mudspattered locals’ cars - all empty - as well as a large, malodorous, green wheelie bin.
The low-key surroundings are unsuspecting witnesses to a significant milestone in Movistar’s history. That’s because on January 26 1980, a newly created team sponsored by aluminium manufacturer Reynolds made its debut in racing at what was then known as the Vuelta a Mallorca. And in its latest incarnation as Movistar, that same team is rolling up for the Spanish season opener in 2020. Their participation 40 years later is material proof that Movistar continues as cycling’s longest surviving World-Tour squad.
Ses Salines and the sun-bleached salt flats that gave the village both its name and its first source of income, date back to the Bronze Age, though these days the locals mainly make their living off sunburned German tourists. You could say that Movistar, albeit in the team’s former incarnations as Reynolds, Banesto, Illes Balears and Caisse d’Epargne, has been around for almost as long, in cycling terms that is.
As it so happens, the WorldTour team that runs Movistar the closest in longevity - Belgian squad Lotto-Soudal, born five years later in 1985 but under different management unlike
