Tour de France: Alex Dowsett named in Movistar team
Last Updated: 29/06/15 4:38pm
Movistar have named Alex Dowsett in their team for the Tour de France, while Astana have picked a strong squad to support Vincenzo Nibali.
Dowsett will be part of the line-up looking after Colombian climber Nairo Quintana, his selection coming just a couple of days after he regained the British time-trial title.
The 26-year-old will be among those competing for the first yellow jersey in Utrecht on Saturday, when the three-week race gets under way with a 13.8km time-trial in the Dutch city.
His two wins this season have come against the clock, with victory at Cadwell Park last week following a time trial success at the Bayern Rundfahrt stage race in May.
Movistar have Quintana as their main general classification hope - he finished second to Team Sky's Chris Froome in 2013 - and they can also count on Alejandro Valverde, who will be strongly fancied to win stage three on the Mur de Huy.
Their strong climbing and time-trialling unit is completed by Imanol Erviti, Jonathan Castroviejo, Gorka Izagirre, Jose Herrada, Adriano Malori and Winner Anacona.
“It's the most balanced squad and the one that brought us everything we needed in all terrains," said team principal Eusebio Unzue.
"Our leadership is clear: Nairo is the team's main reference on the road. However, and knowing how this race works and all the circumstances you can go through during a Tour de France, we can't rule out Alejandro staying by his side and also keeping his chances alive [which are the whole team's], until the facts show otherwise."
Astana will be led by 2014 Tour winner Nibali, who warmed up for the race by defending his Italian road race title on Saturday.
Similarly to Movistar, they have loaded their team with time-trial and mountain specialists, although there is a call for classics specialist Lars Boom, who will hope to repeat his victory from 2014 when the peloton takes on stage four on parts of the Paris-Roubaix course. The Dutchman won a rain-wrecked cobbled stage last year on the day Froome withdrew from the race.
Nibali's main support in the mountains will come from Michele Scarponi, Jakob Fuglsang and Tanel Kangert, who finished 13th overall at the Giro d'Italia as part of Fabio Aru's back-up team.
Their line-up is completed by Andrei Grivko, Dmitriy Gruzdev, Lieuwe Westra and Rein Taaramae.
