Home team Movistar had hoped to line up at next week's Vuelta Femenina with last year's runner-up and a potential winner in their roster, but have instead had to rejig their plans and likely ambitions.
Second last year, Marlen Reusser made the Vuelta the goal of her season for 2026, and returned from injury at the Spring Classics to begin her build-up. However, her return to racing did not last long, as after winning Dwars door Vlaanderen, she crashed out of her next race at the Tour of Flanders.
The crash left her with a fractured vertebra in her lower back, and another long stint away from racing, including missing her big season goal at the Vuelta.
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Second last year at both the Vuelta and the Giro d'Italia Women, and winner of two further stage races at the Vuelta a Burgos and Tour de Suisse, Reusser is one of the top GC contenders in the current peloton, but it is not yet clear when she may be back in action.
Instead, Movistar are set to lean on Liane Lippert as their overall leader at the Vuelta next week, announcing their full squad on Wednesday.
Lippert will be joined by Mareille Meijer, Arlenis Sierra, Tota Magalhães, Sara Martín, Lucía Ruiz and Aude Biannic in what the team describe as "a well-balanced squad combining experience and youth, with options to shine across different race scenarios".
What can Movistar achieve in Spain?
Riding as the home team, and circling this race as a key goal even before the season began, Movistar will still want to try and make a success of the Vuelta, and confirmed that Lippert, Sierra and Meijer in particular will be targeting stage victories in Spain.
Lippert is a strong, punchy climber, but not known for her GC ability, and it is clear that challenging for the podium, like Reusser would have done, will be beyond her limits. The German rider has finished in the top 10 of climbing stage races before, albeit never a Grand Tour, so a similar finish is certainly possible, but likely only as a byproduct of stage hunting.
For Lippert, the Tour of Flanders and the Ardennes were the most important races of her spring, but her results were lacking: top 30 in every race, but 14th at Flèche Wallonne her highest finish, so she doesn't quite look to be in sparkling form just yet.
However, the back-to-back racing in Spain should give her time to ride into good shape. With the Vuelta route featuring very little flat, the several punchy stages should give her multiple opportunities to go for a win, before the super lightweight climbers take over for the mountainous final two stages.
In Sierra, Lippert has both an elite lead-out rider and another card to play in punchy finishes, with the Cuban rider faster and well suited to larger group finishes.
Mareille Meijer could prove a dark horse for the team, and be able to excel on even the hardest stages. The Dutch late bloomer has had a quieter start to 2026 than usual, but has previously excelled in lower-level stage races and hilly one-day races, and could well jump on an opportunity to take a big result in Spain.
A few weeks ago, it felt like Movistar could come away from the Vuelta with a podium spot at the very least and possibly even the overall victory.
Whilst those heights may be out of reach for the Reusser-less squad, they can still start their home Grand Tour with ambitions of winning, and certainly look able to come away with at least a stage victory.
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