'Not fear, just respect' - Junior World Champion Paula Ostiz ready for assault on WorldTour with Movistar

It's been a hectic few months, a non-stop run of success and a steep learning curve for Paula Ostiz as the 18-year-old Junior World Champion prepares for her full debut in the WorldTour next January with Movistar. But for now, she's very much taking it all in her stride.

In less than a fortnight and riding for Spain, Ostiz amassed a silver medal and gold medal in the Junior Time Trial and Road Race in the UCI Road World Championships in Rwanda, then gold medals in both categories in the UEC Road European Championships in France.

However, the congratulations she received from longstanding Movistar manager Eusebio Unzue after taking gold in Rwanda as the two walked together towards the winner's podium was very much a sign, too, of the direction Ostiz would be taking as a professional in the months and years to come.

Although UAE Team ADQ tried to sign her, she told Mundo Deportivo in a lengthy interview, her preference was always going to be with Movistar. She already caught Movistar's eye in the Cadetes (U16) category, and by the end of her first year in the next category of Juveniles (17-18-year-olds), she had already signed with them, she said.

"It's the home team" - Ostiz is from Pamplona, the same city where Movistar has its headquarters, "so it's the one that suits me the best, where I wanted to be and where they will help me a lot. They talk Spanish, and it's like a family."

She also has a longstanding admiration for Alejandro Valverde, both the Spanish national trainer and an ambassador and gravel racer for the Movistar team, and that can have done no harm to her preference for the Spanish WorldTour squad.

"Having him by my side the day I won the Worlds was incredible. I've always liked his ambition and the way he never gave up," she said.

"He always wanted to win a Worlds, and he did so at 38."

Ostiz has done the same at 18, of course and after racing and finishing three Italian autumn Classics with Movistar - her best placing in Veneto Women on Wednesday, where she took 19th - her next step will be to make a full debut with the squad in 2026.

Asked whether she felt worried about the big step she is about to take, Ostiz answered, "Not fear, just respect."

"I've already raced a few events" - at professional level - "and it's gone well. I'm young."

As yet she has no idea what events she might do next season in her first full year, she says, but I'm guessing I'll do the Classics and then I'll start seeing more or less where I'm at."

"I think I'd be good in the Giro, Tour and Vuelta, but it's too soon to say. You have to enjoy every race you do, every effort you make, being with the team and the teammates. Otherwise,” she said with refreshing directness - “it's crap."

Miguel Indurain, beating the boys and the next step forward with Movistar

As could only be the case in Pamplona, birthplace of Miguel Indurain, Ostiz said her family would follow the five-times Tour de France winner's career closely, and that it was thanks to her father and brothers that she began riding a bike, aged six.

"I don't remember where my first race was," she told Mundo Deportivo, "But I started out in the promesas category [8-year-olds - Ed.] and I was already beating the boys.

"I kept going all the way to infantiles [13-14 years old - Ed.] until they stopped me from racing with the boys because I beat them, and there were parents who'd complain that a girl was beating their sons. So I switched over to racing with girls, and I got bored."

"The boys didn't give me any stick about it [beating them], they didn't even say anything to me, I got on fine with them. It was more the parents [who got upset]."

Moving into the more senior categories, despite such runaway success, Ostiz clearly has kept her feet on the ground, paying considerable tribute to her family and trainer Imanol Etxarri for the contribution they have made to her career.

But equally clearly, Ostiz feels ready for the next step forward with Movistar, too, even if she said that it's too soon to know what kind of rider she will develop into, as "that is something I have to discover."

"Next season, when I get into the WorldTour, I'll see where I can do best," she said. "For one thing, I already know that I have to improve on the long ascents."

So far, though, the signs Ostiz is ready to keep climbing upwards in all aspects of the sport she's chosen could hardly be bettered.