A new Netflix series following Movistar's 2019 season documents the tensions between Nairo Quintana and Mikel Landa at that year's Tour de France, with both riders eventually leaving the team at the end of the year.
Titled 'The Least Expected Day' and containing six 20-minute episodes, the series is in Spanish featuring English subtitles. It captures the communication issues that have troubled the Spanish squad over recent years as they've tried to balance the ambitions of three potential Grand Tour leaders, a tactic that has failed to culminate with any one of them wearing the yellow jersey onto the Champs-Élysées.
"If they don't resolve their differences, we have a problem," Alejandro Valverde says in episode four, as one of the most public displays of the troubles within the team coming to light when Movistar continued to drive the peloton after Quintana was dropped on stage 14 containing the summit finish on the Tourmalet.
In a press release, Movistar said: "Filmed over eight months in locations across Europe and Latin America, from the team's headquarters in Pamplona (Spain) to the interior of Ecuador's northern Carchi province, ‘The Least Expected Day’ brings its cameras into the daily activities of Movistar, trying to show the feelings and reactions of its main members.
"We opened our doors at every pre-race meeting at the team bus, their hotel rooms during the massage, breakfast and dinner, and of course, the team cars where all the shots are called during the most important events of the cycling season."
>>> Nairo Quintana says he left Movistar as he ‘did not want to argue with the other leaders’
At the end of the 2019 season, Mikel Landa departed for Rod Ellingworth's revamped Bahrain-McLaren outfit, while Nairo Quintana headed for Arkéa-Samsic, where he has already picked up a number of wins for the French team, including stage seven of Paris-Nice and the overall victory at the Tour de La Provence.
All six episodes are available as of Friday March 27th and will provide cycling fans with another Netflix series to pass the time whilst on coronavirus lockdown and the 2020 racing calendar cancelled for the foreseeable future.
