Gallery: Team Movistar squad for 2012

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Alejandro Valverde (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Andrei Amador (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Pablo Lastras Garcia (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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David Lopez (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Angel Madrazo Ruiz (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Daniel Moreno (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Sergio Pardilla Bellon (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Ruben Plaza Molina (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Branislau Samoilau (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Enrique Sanz (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Francisco José Ventoso (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Ignatas Konovalovas (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Vasili Kiryienka (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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David Arroyo (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Marzio Bruseghin (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Imanol Erviti Ollo (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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José Ivan Gutierrez (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Jesus Herrada Lopez (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Beñat Intxausti Elorriaga (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Javier Iriarte (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Vladimir Karpets (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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Giovanni Visconti (Image credit: Team Movistar)

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.

Cobo: Movistar offer too good to pass up

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.