Paula Blasi, 23, will ride for Movistar for three seasons from 1 January 2027, a deal announced on 21 October 2026 and signed in September, according to El Periódico.
El Periódico reports a release clause of 100,000 euros and says the UAE team delayed sending documents to the UCI, which kept the announcement on hold for more than a month.
Blasi won the Vuelta a España, the first Spanish woman to do so, along with the Amstel Gold Race and the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, and finished fifth at the Tour de France.
Spanish cyclist Paula Blasi, 23, will ride for the Movistar Team for the next three seasons, the Spanish squad announced on Wednesday, 21 October 2026. She leaves the UAE team, where she spent her first two seasons in the elite. El Periódico reported that the deal was signed in September, but the UAE delayed sending its documents to the UCI, so Movistar could not make the signing public until the governing body approved the transfer. Blasi starts with Movistar on 1 January 2027. She comes from Esplugues de Llobregat, near Barcelona, and is the reigning Vuelta a España champion.
As an amateur in 2024 she won the Catalan time trial and road championships and finished fourth at the Tour de l'Avenir. In 2025, her first season as a professional, she won four races, including a stage of the Tour de Romandie Féminin where she finished fourth overall. She also became European under-23 road champion and took bronze at the world championships. In 2026 she was third overall at the Santos Women's Tour Down Under, then won the Amstel Gold Race, finished third at La Flèche Wallonne and fifth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, her first Monument. Her Vuelta win followed a comeback on the L'Angliru climb, making her the first Spanish woman to win the race. She also won the CIC-Tour Féminin des Pyrénées, taking a stage on the Tourmalet, and the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya overall in June.
Her first Tour de France in 2026 became a turning point. Her team used her as a helper for leader Elisa Longo Borghini, and she finished fifth overall, behind team leaders Longo Borghini and Dominika Wlodarczyk. Cycling media reported from late June that she was heading to Movistar, but the club did not confirm it for months. According to El Periódico, she was not allowed to ride a reconnaissance of Mont Ventoux and climbed it without inspecting the course. The same outlet reports that she paid about 20,000 euros to Lidl-Trek after a preliminary agreement with that team, which then signed Kasia Niewiadoma, the Polish rider who was second at the Tour and at the world championships. Blasi explained her decision in a statement released by Movistar.
“Plus, it is the home team, and it makes me prouder to wear the kit.”
According to El Periódico, Blasi will have full freedom to chase the general classification of the Tour de France, which the paper calls the main goal of the move. She will share leadership at Movistar with Marlen Reusser, the Swiss rider and reigning world and European time-trial champion who was previously the team's leader. El Periódico said the two spoke by phone shortly before the signing. The team, led by Sebastián Unzué, presented the transfer in its own statement.
“With the arrival of Paula Blasi, the Movistar Team further reinforces its commitment to women's cycling and to building a project that brings together the present and the future.”
Blasi's contract covers three seasons starting in 2027.
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Vuelta a España champion Paula Blasi, 23, leaves the UAE team for Movistar, which will field her for three seasons from 1 January 2027. The signing was agreed in September, but the announcement waited for UCI paperwork.
AI text based on reports by ABC TU DIARIO EN ESPAÑOL, NOS, El Periódico and other publishers. Published .