What a difference a year makes.In the first week of the 2019 Vuelta a España, Marc Soler waved his arms violently and publicly protested against the team directors who called him back for Nairo Quintana, who took the sole lead with 3km to go.

On Wednesday of the second stage of the 2020 Vuelta a España, Sorrell again waved his arms.

The Spaniard, who won the Tour de l'Avenir in 2015, finally took his first Grand Tour stage win, while Movistar finally took his first victory in February.

"I am very happy. It was very motivating to race on my home turf," Soler said, noting that the stage started in Pamplona, home of the team and its sponsors.

"It's my first Grand Tour stage win and I'm very happy. It's a great reward for all the hard work I've put in during this complicated year. I want to thank the whole team and all the people who have supported me.

Sorrell and his teammates put their local knowledge to good use, stretching the field to the limit on the exposed and windy section over the summit of Puerto de Urbasa with 60km to go and dominating the final climb up the Alto de San Miguel.

Soler, who did a lot of the work for Enric Mas and Alejandro Valverde, actually fell near the top, but managed to make it back down to the line. As soon as he did so, he jumped out of the lead pack of favorites and was never seen again.

"I reconfirmed this stage over the weekend, so I knew the terrain and had an idea of what to expect in Urbasa. Carlos [Verona] set a great tempo on the final climb, and I was able to get a good start.

"I wanted to go back for Enric and Alejandro, but I was twice as fast as that group and I didn't slow down and kept going.

Soler said he rode twice as fast, but Mass, who moved into fifth place overall, saw it as three times as fast.

"When he passed me, I thought it was a bike. He was running three times as fast, and seeing that he was 50 meters off in three seconds, he had to keep going. He really deserved this."

Movistar as a whole has not had a brilliant year, but what a difference nine months makes. The team has not tasted victory since Soler himself won the season opener at Challenge Mallorca.

As Mas said in Recumbelli, "We needed a win."

It was a year of change for the Spanish World Tour team, with Nairo Quintana, Mikel Landa, Richard Calapaz, and Andrei Amador leaving at the end of 2019. With a total ban on dealing with player agent Giuseppe Acquadro (as a result of the mess that was the departure of Calapaz and Amador), the main players acquired in the transfer market are neo-pro players, and as a result, the young team will take time to settle in. At the same time, age seems to have caught up with longtime tailman Alejandro Valverde, now 40 and without a win since last year's Vuelta.

In the Tour de France, Valverde has been quiet. Initially, so was Mas, but as the race progressed, the 25-year-old Valverde turned things around and quietly climbed to fifth place overall by Paris.

On the first day of the Vuelta, Mas rode with the leading riders, and while Valverde and Soler lost a few places, Movistar showed strength and solidarity in their home town on Wednesday. Aside from a speculative attack by Calapaz before the final climb and a brief acceleration by Sepp Kuss near the summit, they dominated most of the day and almost all of the finale.

"If you analyze the past year, we lacked confidence. We got off to a good start in Mallorca, but then little by little things happened that we couldn't put our finger on, and we started to lose results."

"At the Tour de France, we regained a little bit of confidence and we are trying to get back what we were missing here.