Gallery: Team Movistar squad for 2012

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Team Movistar will be hoping that two grand signings in the form of Alejandro Valverde and Juan Jose Cobo Acebo will bring the team success in 2012.

The Spanish team were presented in Madrid earlier this week with both Spaniards pulling on a Movistar jersey for the first time. Both riders had previously ridden for the team in it's previous incarnation as Caisse d'Epargne. However Valverde missed Movistar's debut season in 2011 due to a doping related ban, while Cobo raced at Geox-TMC, where he won the Vuelta a Espana.

“I hope to ride like I did in the last two months of last season,” Cobo said. “Winning the Vuelta didn’t so much change my life as change my mentality. Thanks to that, I’m now super motivated and that’s what I needed.”

Eusebio Unzue confirmed that Cobo will be on hand to defend his red jersey when the Vuelta gets underway in Pamplona on August 18, and hinted that he will ride the Tour de France beforehand. However, he was reluctant to rule out the possibility that Cobo might instead lead the squad at the Giro d’Italia.