Manuela has a bicycle name

Chaves: "If you ask me if I can win the Tour, I'll tell you yes"

Bombshell, Movistar will no longer be alone in the WorldTour: Team Manuela Fundación takes over from Mitchelton

Since 2013, when Euskaltel said goodbye winking at Fernando Alonso, there were not two Spanish teams in the highest category of international cycling. Movistar has been alone ever since. Everything was entrusted to teams with a future project, to lay the foundations before reaching the elite. Murias, Burgos, Fundación, Caja Rural... other national teams have been taking small steps towards that dream of being in the Tour de France.

But, overnight, a group from Granada has crept to the top. We are talking about Team Manuela Fundación, which this Friday acquired the powerful Mitchelton-Scott from the Yates brothers. A set that borders the 15 million euros of budget of which 70% comes from the main sponsor.

How has this operation been carried out? It is the question that cycling fans in Spain are asking these days. Given the difficulties to achieve it, this great news hides several keys. They have the answers in Granada, where a company is located, Manuela Fundación, whose activity is thought to start next October. A date where the team should have already run in blue and pink, the colors of the jersey, in the Tour de France and will be doing so in the Giro and LaVuelta. Until now it had a sub-23 team and others of a lower category where Francisco Huertas, the head of the project, contributed 300,000 euros.

The company was born after a misfortune: the death of Manuela, daughter of Francisco Huertas himself and his partner María Angustias González. Just two days after she was born, her heart stopped and that news caused them to start the foundation. The businessman, linked to construction and the world of paintings, has had incursions into different spheres.

As for sports, he got into Granada where he contributed 400,000 euros to help solve the complicated situation of the Nasrid team in 2008, where the team was chaired by Paco Sanz. When the construction sector worsened, Huertas left the operation despite the fact that at first he indicated that he was going to pay 1.2 million, he only put up 400,000 euros. From the club they did not want him to stay with part of the shareholders.

Something similar happened to him with Real Jaén in 2017, where he was unable to gain control despite his interest in buying the institution. He met Sergio Hitos on several occasions to show him his interest in the white club with the aim of becoming a shareholder. "If they don't want me, I won't go," said the businessman. His experiences in football were not entirely positive.

Since his daughter died on October 6, 2015, the marriage that created the foundation in 2017 "as a need expressed in the pain of loss", has been looking for social and sports causes in which to work. "We try to find formulas that help us transform tears into smiles and pain into love that allow us to infinitely multiply the light and brightness that he bequeathed us so that his essence is magical, colorful and happy. Keep living in each one of the that we had the joy of loving and enjoying her but also those who join these new paths of their existence beyond life...", said the parents who have participated in numerous and valuable campaigns against breast cancer, several schools and children's organizations to which they have donated significant amounts of money.

As a result of this, they set up the sub-23 team (where Juan Antonio 'Chupe' López-Cozar ex Murias currently rides) after a brief experience with the local cycling school. They also have a block made up of schools, cadets and juniors who will continue to be linked to training. At the team's presentation two years ago, there was talk of an important project in Ciudad Manuela that was to be carried out in the town of Otura, where, on a 100-hectare plot of land, there would be extremely modern buildings, housing for the most disadvantaged, soccer fields, padel courts, basketball courts, a covered pavilion, an indoor swimming pool, a sports campus residence, horse stables, an equestrian track, therapy for animals, a school farm, a zoo and a large artificial lake. None of that saw the light later.

A controversial episode surrounding his figure dates back to 2009 when his company, Hufrago (created 14 years ago), donated six floats that he allegedly owned to the Three Kings parade in Granada. They paraded that Christmas but, days later, Lola Ruiz Domenech, a United Left politician, denounced that they had not received the 72,000 euros that its creation meant. As published by 'Granada Hoy' on April 16, 2009, the construction company only paid a small part of the money to Tarlatana, who received several promissory notes returned by the bank.

I just googled dehydrating apples. WHO THE HELL HAS TRIED TO DEHYDRATE WATER?? OR MILK!! OR BUTTER!!! https://t.co/wx8GL6X5u7

— Jane Fallon Sun Sep 13 12:27:58 +0000 2020

Francisco Huertas, the now patron of the new Spanish cycling team and at that time responsible for Hufrago, dressed as Baltasar in a cavalcade that he never thought would last so long.

Diving through the newspaper library, Huertas had another 'problem' with the famous Granada band 'Las Tres Caídas de Granada', which offered 170,000 euros to play at Las Aguas de Sevilla. After a great controversy (it is not usual for a band to offer money to a brotherhood but rather the other way around), this proposal was rejected since the Archbishopric did not accept such a high amount due to its internal control mechanisms and Francisco would end up leaving the band. of bugles and drums 'Jesús de las Tres Caídas' as a result of "multiple disagreements" with the then older brother and some members of the board of the brotherhood of Nuestro Padre Jesús de las Tres Caídas and Nuestra Señora del Rosario.

of the best in the world

At a sporting level, the Mitchleton-Scott team is one of the greatest powers on the planet. In its squad it has two men of the quality of the Yates brothers, who are out of contract this year. The first won the Vuelta a España and the second, winner this year in the Tour of the Emirates, has always shown the ability to attack at least the podium of a big one. Along with them are other men of great quality such as Esteban Chaves or the Spanish Mikel Nieve. Of the 28 riders who are in the team today, only 10 have a contract for 2021 (Chaves, Groves, Hamilton, Hepburn, Impey, Juul-Jerisen, Konychev, Nieve, Peák and Zeits).

In the women's team is Annemiek Van Vleuten, probably the best cyclist in the world. According to the portal 'Ciclo 21', Alejandro González Tablas from Salamanca will be the manager for the next season of the women's team. In the women's, only Jessica Roberts has also signed for 2021.

On Friday they advanced, after a brief statement, that all the details about the new team will be known on July 1 at an act of the Manuela Foundation. What they have already transferred is the intention to establish the headquarters in Granada, although this step will be one hundred percent operational by 2021. From the foundation they recognize that they know exactly where they have gotten and that they do not arrive as a patch, but to continue growing to one of the most important teams in the world.

Among its staff there are well-known personalities within the scene and with experience such as former runners Manuel Calvente, José Manuel Moreno (gold in Barcelona'92) and Stefano Garzelli, winner of the Giro and who has been working in the structure of the club for some time. In your hands is the adventure of the Manuela Team. The agreement began in May, it was closed a week ago, although the statement, written on Saturday, was not published until this Friday the 12th. Now, after paying the guarantee, the consulting firm Ernst&Young will analyze the accounts of the company that, having no activities until October, it will entrust its viability to the assets of those responsible.

"It has been an intense period of work between the sports director of the Manuela Foundation, Emilio Rodríguez, and the general director of Mitchelton-Scott, Shayne Bannan. It is an incredible opportunity and an honor to be able to reach this agreement. We want to thank Gerry Ryan for all his work and contribution so far, which has taken the team to its best level. Now we will continue to promote this legacy and give great joy to the fans of this sport", explained Huertas.

GreenEDGE Cycling Team Owner Gerry Ryan said: "After an unsettling and uncertain period, especially in recent months, we are delighted to have the support of Francisco Huertas and Fundación Manuela to secure our future in 2021 and beyond. We have always believed in our product and the values ​​of our team as prospective partners, but the importance of this long-term agreement is not lost on us, especially given the recent difficulties not only in the world of cycling and the sports industry, but also the economic and health climate of the world in general. As an organization, we are moved by the history of the Manuela Foundation and we are looking forward to working with such a generous project and doing our part to contribute to its vision of helping to create a more caring world" .

Ryan has been the mainstay of this Australian cycling project for many years but, over the years, his successors have been gaining weight in the company and they no longer viewed this type of investment in cycling so favorably.

From Huawei to Manuela

The team had it practically closed with the Huawei company. The news broke in the international company at the beginning of 2019. The agreement existed and was practically consummated, but in March of that same year the daughter of the owner of Huawei Ren Zhengfei, Wanzhou Meng, was arrested by the American police with Apple products in her possession. and everything stopped.

Wanzhou Meng, who served as CFO of the Chinese company, had an iPhone, an iPad and a MacBook in her possession. The trade war between the two countries would end up definitively complicating the operation. Now, months later, a Spanish businessman has decided to save the team and secure a new Spanish place in the WorldTour. The Manuela Foundation is already a reality and Spanish cycling celebrates it.