Paula Blasi reportedly set to join Movistar through 2029 as long-running transfer saga nears conclusion

Paula Blasi is reportedly set to leave UAE Team L’IMAD at the end of the 2026 season and join Movistar Team on a three-year contract running through 2029, bringing one of the year’s longest-running women’s transfer stories close to a conclusion.

The move has not yet been officially confirmed by Movistar, UAE Team L’IMAD or Blasi, so for now it should be treated as a reported agreement rather than a completed transfer. However, El País reports that Movistar are expected to announce the signing in the coming days after reaching agreements around both Blasi’s existing UAE contract and an earlier pre-agreement with Lidl-Trek.

According to the Spanish newspaper, Movistar have paid a €100,000 release clause to secure Blasi from UAE Team L’IMAD, where she was under contract through 2027, and have also reached an amicable agreement with Lidl-Trek. El País reports that Blasi has signed through 2029 on a salary of around €500,000 per season.

If confirmed, Movistar would be signing one of the defining riders of the 2026 season. The 23-year-old won La Vuelta Femenina, Amstel Gold Race, the Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées and Volta a Catalunya Femenina before finishing fifth overall at the Tour de France Femmes.

A transfer story that has run through much of 2026

Blasi’s future has been the subject of speculation for months rather than emerging suddenly in September.

Her contract with UAE Team L’IMAD was due to continue through the end of 2027, but her extraordinary first half of 2026 rapidly changed her position in the transfer market. Winning La Vuelta Femenina on the Angliru established Blasi as a genuine Grand Tour contender rather than simply one of the strongest young climbers in the peloton.

ProCyclingUK’s La Vuelta Femenina final classification recap showed the scale of that breakthrough. Blasi overturned an 18-second deficit to Anna van der Breggen on the final day and became the first Spanish winner of the race in its current format.

Interest from rival teams followed.

During the spring, Blasi was reported to have signed a pre-agreement with Lidl-Trek. At that stage, the American-backed team appeared to be the most likely destination if she could negotiate an early exit from UAE.

That situation did not last.

By June, reports in Spain suggested Lidl-Trek had decided not to pursue the move and were prepared to allow Blasi to explore other options. The pre-agreement still needed to be resolved formally, but Movistar increasingly emerged as the alternative.

By the beginning of August, Movistar was already being described as the strongest possibility for her future.

That coincided with another important period in Blasi’s season.

Tour de France Femmes brought the situation into sharper focus

Blasi arrived at the Tour de France Femmes as the reigning Vuelta champion and one of the strongest climbers of the year.

ProCyclingUK’s Tour de France Femmes contenders preview placed her firmly among the riders capable of challenging for the podium after a spring in which her results had repeatedly pushed expectations higher.

Her position within UAE Team L’IMAD was more complicated.

The team also had Elisa Longo Borghini and several other riders capable of major GC results, and the hierarchy was not always clearly defined. Blasi eventually finished fifth overall, while Longo Borghini took third.

The final result was strong, but it also reinforced the argument that Blasi had reached the point where she needed a team willing to build a Grand Tour structure around her rather than simply include her among several possible leaders.

ProCyclingUK’s analysis of what the 2026 Tour de France Femmes meant for the rest of the season highlighted how Blasi had moved beyond being an emerging climbing prospect. By Nice, she had established herself as a rider who could reasonably expect leadership in the biggest stage races.

The transfer discussion continued behind the scenes.

Movistar gradually became the most likely destination

Movistar’s interest made sense for both sporting and commercial reasons.

The team have traditionally placed a high value on leading Spanish talent, and Blasi has rapidly become the most successful young Spanish stage racer in the women’s peloton.

Her arrival would also fit the direction of a roster already being reshaped for 2027.

Mireia Benito has signed from AG Insurance-Soudal through 2029, bringing another experienced Spanish rider into the team, while Paula Ostiz represents part of the next generation coming through the structure.

Blasi would immediately sit at the centre of that group.

Her move also appears likely to involve more than the rider herself. El País reports that Blasi’s personal coach Francesc Escolà is expected to join Movistar’s performance structure, while director Aída Nuño is also set to move across from UAE.

That would suggest Movistar are preparing a support structure around Blasi rather than simply adding another strong rider to the existing squad.

Lidl-Trek were initially expected to win the race for Blasi

The Lidl-Trek element is what makes the transfer story particularly unusual.

Blasi was initially expected to join the team after reportedly reaching a pre-agreement during the spring.

At the time, Lidl-Trek appeared an obvious destination. They have spent recent seasons investing heavily in younger riders and rebuilding parts of their women’s roster as established names such as Lizzie Deignan and Ellen van Dijk retired.

Blasi would have offered them a potential long-term Grand Tour leader.

The situation began to change during the summer.

Spanish reports suggested Lidl-Trek had stepped back from the transfer by June, leaving the door open for Movistar. The remaining issue was the status of the pre-agreement itself rather than whether Lidl-Trek still intended to build around Blasi.

The latest report suggests that problem has now been resolved through an agreement between the parties.

If so, the sequence has effectively gone from UAE contract, to expected Lidl-Trek move, to an increasingly likely Movistar transfer over the course of a single season.

UAE Team L’IMAD still had Blasi under contract for 2027

Another complication is that Blasi was never due to become a conventional free agent this winter.

Her UAE Team L’IMAD contract runs through the end of 2027.

That means Movistar cannot simply sign her without first securing a release, which is why the reported €100,000 clause matters.

Blasi only stepped up permanently from UAE’s development structure recently, and the speed of her development appears to have outgrown the circumstances under which that contract was originally agreed.

Her trajectory has been exceptional.

After establishing herself during 2025, she began 2026 with a much higher competitive ceiling and then moved beyond it again almost immediately.

The turning point was La Vuelta, but it was not an isolated result.

Blasi won Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria shortly afterwards, with ProCyclingUK covering her solo victory in the Basque hills.

She then produced another dominant climbing performance at the Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées.

On the race’s decisive stage, Blasi attacked more than 10 kilometres from the summit of the Tourmalet before riding alone to Bagnères-de-Bigorre. The Tourmalet stage victory effectively settled the general classification.

Those results changed what teams were prepared to offer her.

Blasi would arrive at Movistar as a Grand Tour leader

The most important part of the reported move is the role Blasi would receive.

She is not expected to join simply as another climbing option.

El País reports that Movistar see her as a leader with the long-term objective of challenging for the Tour de France Femmes.

That is a significant commitment for a rider who is still only 23, but her 2026 season makes the reasoning straightforward.

Blasi has already won one Grand Tour and finished fifth in another.

Her climbing is good enough to gain time against the best riders in the world, particularly when races reach long, sustained mountain finishes. The biggest area still available for improvement is her time trialling.

Movistar may be particularly well placed to help there because Marlen Reusser has become one of the defining time trial specialists of her generation.

The two riders would bring very different strengths to a Grand Tour.

Reusser can build advantages against the clock and defend herself exceptionally well in the mountains. Blasi is more naturally suited to the hardest sustained climbs.

That gives Movistar options rather than necessarily creating a leadership problem.

Reusser and Blasi could reshape Movistar’s stage-racing approach

Movistar have spent much of 2026 looking towards Reusser as their primary GC reference.

Blasi would change the shape of that structure without necessarily replacing her.

Different Grand Tour routes would naturally favour different riders.

A Tour containing substantial time trial kilometres could lean towards Reusser. A route dominated by major summit finishes would strengthen Blasi’s case. In races where both remain in contention, Movistar could use two leaders to create pressure rather than asking one rider to respond to every attack.

That is a significant tactical upgrade.

It also gives Blasi an experienced rider from whom she can learn in the area where she still has the greatest scope to improve.

If her time trial develops while her climbing remains at its current level, the gap between a top-five Tour finish and a genuine challenge for yellow becomes much smaller.

Movistar are increasingly investing in Spanish talent

Blasi would also form part of a wider shift within Movistar.

Benito’s arrival brings another established Spanish rider into the roster, while Ostiz continues to develop as one of the most promising young talents in the country.

Cat Ferguson remains another major part of the team’s future, giving Movistar a young core capable of targeting several different types of race.

Signing Blasi would add a rider who has already proven she can win one of the biggest stage races in women’s cycling.

That distinction matters.

Movistar would not be buying potential alone. They would be signing a reigning Grand Tour winner whose development has moved faster than almost anyone expected at the beginning of the year.

Official confirmation is still required

For all the detail surrounding the move, one point remains important: Movistar have not yet officially announced Paula Blasi as a 2027 rider.

The latest reporting is strong and unusually specific, including the length of the contract, the reported release clause, the agreement involving Lidl-Trek and the expected movement of staff around Blasi.

That makes a Movistar move appear increasingly likely.

It does not make it official.

Until either team or Blasi confirms the transfer, she remains contracted to UAE Team L’IMAD through 2027.

If the expected announcement arrives, it will bring an end to a transfer story which has changed direction repeatedly during 2026. Lidl-Trek appeared to have secured her first, Movistar then emerged as the strongest alternative, and the remaining contractual questions have taken much of the summer to resolve.

For Movistar, the result would be one of the biggest signings of the women’s transfer window.

For Blasi, it would mean entering 2027 with something she has increasingly looked ready for throughout this season: a team prepared to treat her as a Grand Tour leader from the start.