Paula Blasi had the pick of the women’s peloton after a 2026 season almost nobody saw coming. She chose a lower bid.

“I turned down a much bigger contract to race where I wanted,” the 23-year-old said as her move to Movistar was finally made official on Wednesday. The three-year deal runs through 2029.

The money is still substantial. Movistar paid €85,000 to UAE Team L’IMAD to meet a release clause and buy Blasi out of a contract that still had a year to run, and will reportedly pay her north of €600,000 per season, a package worth more than €1.8m across the three years. That puts her among the highest-paid riders in the women’s peloton. The rejected offer, Blasi has said, was higher still.

A saga that started on the Angliru

The transfer became inevitable the moment Blasi climbed to overall victory at La Vuelta Femenina in May. In her second season as a professional, she had already won Amstel Gold Race with a 26-kilometre solo move, taken Volta a Catalunya and the Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées on general classification, and finished third at Flèche Wallonne. The Vuelta win, decided by 24 seconds over Anna van der Breggen on the Angliru, triggered a release mechanism in her UAE deal.

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Lidl-Trek moved first. Spanish reports placed Blasi on a pre-agreement with the American team during the spring, before Lidl-Trek stepped back during the summer and left Movistar to close the deal. Blasi then went on to finish fifth overall at the Tour de France Femmes, 6:13 behind Demi Vollering, which only raised the price of her signature.

She announced her early exit from UAE Team L’IMAD in September. The identity of her next team stayed officially unconfirmed until Wednesday’s press release.

A grand tour project around her and Reusser

For Movistar, the signing is the clearest statement of intent the Spanish WorldTour team has made in years. General manager Sebastián Unzué called it “a new leap in quality that will allow us to fight for the most important races on the calendar.”

Blasi joins a 2027 roster that already includes Marlen Reusser and Liane Lippert, with young talents Cat Ferguson, Paula Ostiz and Alejandra Neira also under contract. Blasi pointed to Reusser’s time-trial strength and stage-racing experience.

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“I’ll be able to grow, share leadership responsibilities and learn from Marlen, which will be important for my development as an athlete,” she said in the team statement.

“And on top of that, it’s my home team. It makes me even prouder to wear the jersey.”

Blasi is from Esplugues de Llobregat, outside Barcelona. Movistar is backed by Spanish telecoms money and has long been the country’s flagship cycling programme on the men’s side; the women’s team, launched in 2018, has never had a rider of Blasi’s current standing.

Her first race in Movistar colours is scheduled for the start of the 2027 season in January.

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