Movistar Team has had a generally disappointing 2025 season. However, they have achieved some positive results that have generated optimism within the team for the future. One of the bright spots has been Orluis Aular. The Venezuelan has shone on several occasions among the world’s best cyclists.
Aular began the season on the Middle East tour. He finished 53rd in the Muscat Classic and 63rd in the Tour of Oman. However, his objective wasn’t the general classification, and he finished third in stage 4, only behind Olav Kooij and Giacomo Nizzolo, two renowned sprinters in the peloton. That result earned him 15th place in the points classification.
In his European debut, he shone with a Top 10 finish in the Clásica de Almería. He struggled at the start of the Flemish cobbled classics, finishing 113th in Omloop Nieuwsblad and 85th in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Things improved somewhat afterward, with a 16th place finish in his best stage at Tirreno-Adriatico, 28th in Milan-San Remo, 23rd in the Bruges-La Panne Classic, 32nd in Dwars door Vlaanderen, and 36th in the Tour of Flanders.
During that part of the season, his only truly disappointing performance was at Gent-Wevelgem, which he failed to finish and was forced to abandon. With all those races under his belt, he arrived at the Giro d’Italia, starting in third place behind Mads Pedersen and Wout van Aert on the opening stage to Tirana.
He followed that up with another third place in stage 3, again won by Pedersen, with Corbin Strong sandwiched between them this time. He finished 4th on stage 5, another day won by Pedersen, with Aular crossing the finish line behind Edoardo Zambanini and Tom Pidcock. After finishing 9th in Vincenzo, he was again 4th in Nova Gorica, behind Kasper Asgreen, Kaden Groves, and Olav Kooij.
He finished the Giro 8th in the final stage to Rome and 10th in the points classification. In that battle for the cyclamen jersey, only Mads Pedersen, Olav Kooij, Wout van Aert, Dries de Bondt, Isaac del Toro, Kaden Groves, Casper van Uden, Alessandro Tonelli, and Richard Carapaz—established riders, stage hunters, and even some who had challenged for the overall classification—could beat him.
Barely had the Giro d’Italia finished, also in June, when he placed 7th in the Baloise Belgium Tour, which was won by Filippo Baroncini ahead of Ethan Hayter, Jenno Berckmoes, Filippo Ganna, Marco Frigo, and Florian Veermersch. Baroncini finished 3rd in his best stage, behind Berckmoes and Frigo. This result also earned him 13th place in the points classification.
He then went straight to the Venezuelan National Championships, where he won both the time trial and the road race without difficulty. He didn’t race in July, and in August he prepared for the Vuelta a España with a 54th place finish in the Circuito de Getxo – Memorial Hermanos Otxoa. As in the Giro, he shone again in the three-week race.
He started once more with a third-place finish, this time behind Jasper Philipsen and Ethan Vernon. He finished 6th in Ceres, 8th in Voiron, 6th in the Figueres team time trial with Movistar Team, and 2nd in Monforte de Lemos after a 160-kilometer breakaway, only to be overtaken once again by his nemesis this year, Mads Pedersen. He also finished third in Guijuelo, behind Philipsen and Pedersen.
These performances earned him another 10th place in the points classification. He finished the season in the Italian classics, placing 52nd in the Coppa Agostoni, 94th in the Coppa Bernocchi, abandoning the Gran Piemonte, and finishing 77th in Il Lombardia. Not great results, but nothing to criticize after a remarkable 2025 season.
Source: www.ciclismoaldia.es