It is strange for cycling fans tuning into the Vuelta a España not to see a rider from UAE Team Emirates-XRG or Visma-Lease a Bike in pole position to win.

After all, since the 2021 Tour de France, cycling’s two biggest teams have won 13 of the 16 Grand Tours, with Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe (twice) and Soudal Quick-Step the only other teams to have been victorious in cycling’s three-week races.

But Movistar leading the Vuelta through Enric Mas by one minute, 45 seconds after 12 stages — in large part due to once-runaway leader Tadej Pogačar’s abandonment — is not, to cycling fans of a certain age, that unusual.

In the 1990s, in their previous guise as Banesto, the Spanish team were the dominant force in cycling’s biggest races, triumphing in five successive Tours de France through Miguel Induráin.

Then in the 2010s, when Team Sky were that era’s pre-eminent team, Movistar won the Vuelta once and the Giro d’Italia twice. They also recorded 10 podium finishes.

Mas being just over a week away from a maiden Grand Tour victory simply carries on the identity of one of cycling’s longest-running teams, founded in 1980.

This article was published in The Athletic/New York Times during the 2026 Vuelta a España. You can read the full article here.