“Working in a World Tour team was my biggest dream” – Interview with Melissa Silva, communications at Movistar Team
Melissa Silva, press officer at Movistar Team, talks about her impressive cycling journey and previews the Tour de France Femmes
Melissa Silva is Portuguese and born in Anadia, a place of cycling. In fact, she knows the sport from all perspectives: from national to international, from the road to the track, from competition to organization, even business. After a brief stint at Portuguese Cycling Magazine, as our page’s correspondent for World Tour events, she became head of communications for the women’s Movistar Team in April 2024.
It is with the enthusiasm of someone who is living their dream, and with this feeling reinforced by the imminent start of the Tour de France Femmes, that Melissa Silva agreed to talk to us about her impressive cycling and life experiences.
This is an unmissable interview for all those who dream of cycling! Even though in Portugal it is difficult to make these dreams come true, Melissa’s example shows how we should try, trusting in work, passion and also circumstances, because we never know what is in store for us.
Portuguese Cycling Magazine – Your cycling journey began as a racer. What made you hang up your bike so young?
Melissa Silva – I raced, and I had a very serious crash during the national championships, in which I fractured two vertebrae and was less than a millimeter away from becoming paralyzed. Four months without a bike, a month in bed. So I ended up leaving cycling on the professional side… in Portugal, if the risk is so much and you don’t get paid, if you get hurt, where does the money come from, how can you sustain yourself? It was impossible for me to leave cycling, but the competition was in that sense. Unfortunately, in women’s cycling in Portugal you don’t gain anything, on the contrary, at the time I paid to race. I would have to earn money another way to do my passion, and I still ran the risk of being unable to do either.
Afterwards, you worked at the Portuguese Cycling Federation and in companies linked to cycling. What did you learn from these experiences?
It’s one thing to see a race as a rider, it’s another thing to see a race from the organization’s side and understand the barriers that Portuguese cycling has, unfortunately there are many. I gained this perspective: as a cyclist I was very critical, but being on the other side I realized that we try to overcome these barriers, but it is difficult. And I ended up understanding more about cycling. I started by watching track cycling, because I’m from Anadia and we have the velodrome. I didn’t know anything about road cycling, and it was the Federation that gave me a general perspective on all aspects, on from schools, because I didn’t go to a cycling school, I started riding on my own, I got better and in the end I was invited to a team.
After the Federation, I went to Italy and worked with Scicon. There I gained another perspective on international cycling, because Portuguese cycling is small. We also care about the details, but we’re not thinking about glasses that take a second off of us because we don’t have the money or cycling dimension for that. Working with riders from UAE Team Emirates and Jayco AlUla, that’s when I started to get involved in World Tour cycling: being in an international company, and having the opportunity to go to the Giro with this company, allows you a different contact with the riders.
After Italy, I wanted to get closer to cycling, and that’s when I moved to the Netherlands. I started working for a cycling marketing agency, having a different perspective from amateur riders outside of Portugal, and at the same time with Rapha. They are sponsors of EF Education-EasyPost and I also ended up having a different vision, now in terms of clothes. Without a doubt, this entire journey made me aware of the real needs of a World Tour professional.
Portuguese Cycling Magazine followed on your journey, and I must say it was a pleasure for all of us to have you as a colleague, even if just for a few months. How do you look at our project?
It is a project that is not common in Portugal, mainly due to its international aspect. We are always following Portuguese cycling, but internationally it is difficult to have someone present on site to give a different perspective. With Portuguese Cycling Magazine, I was able to access many things that I wouldn’t have been able to access on my own. You end up meeting a lot of important people and also having experiences, like the adventures of a cyclocross race, where to get close to the riders you have to go through a lot of people and mud (laughs). If I couldn’t be in a race like that, I would never have met Thibau Nys or Filippo Ganna, for example. And I believe that, for the Portuguese public, these adventures are funny, because we don’t have anything similar in terms of showing what’s behind a race. The information that the media shares can be obtained through other means, but information and images during a race are different.
Of the articles you wrote and races you photographed, what was your favorite thing to do at PCM?
The European track championships [January 2024], with the best riders in Europe and the Portuguese in the fight. Being inside a velodrome in the Netherlands, doing an interview with Harrie Lavreysen, the greatest sprint machine, and being able to see him win a race from the pits, was out of this world! The Dutch public was very excited, he won the sprint by an absurd distance, and the velodrome was completely on fire. It was one of the most chilling moments I’ve experienced in a race and for PCM.
How did you join Movistar Team?
Working in communications for a World Tour team was my biggest dream, and I had been trying to achieve it since I finished my postgraduate degree in marketing at the University of Coimbra [Portugal]. I tried to join smaller teams, until one day I was on Linkedin and saw that a position had opened at Movistar. It’s one of those things where you think ‘I’ll try, but obviously I won’t succeed’, but I ended up doing it. I had the most chaotic interview possible: I had a fever of 40 degrees, my voice barely came out, but it’s that opportunity you can’t miss. I must have had the best interview of my life, because out of 500 candidates – I was aware that it was my dream, but I had no idea that it was the dream of so many people – I got in. Juan Pablo [Molinero], the marketing director at Movistar, called me to tell me that I got the job and wanted to start with me immediately. I was on duty at Rapha and I couldn’t believe it… my colleagues just asked me if I was okay, because I must have been completely still. I knew before La Flèche Wallone and Liège-Bastogne-Liège and I already did those races with Movistar.
How did this news change your life, especially your regular job?
I was lucky to have an incredible boss, who had already noticed that I followed all the races during the classic season with Portuguese Cycling Magazine. He always said to me “Melissa, when I look at you when you talk about the races you went to see over the weekend, I know that that is your dream job and you will be happy there.” At that time, Rapha was experiencing financial difficulties and they would either have to reduce the working hours of all store employees, or fire some of them. That same week, he had called the employees one by one to make them that proposal. I mentioned that the previous week I had had an interview with Movistar, but that I didn’t know if I would get in, so he could know that I would be open to changing my contract. The day I found out, I sent him a simple message saying “we have to talk”. He immediately congratulated me and asked when I had to start. Supposedly I had to give him a month, but he said “you work tomorrow, with your shift covered, and you go for your dream”. Not long ago, I went to visit him and he was super happy [for me]. More than a boss, he was a friend who knew where I was happy and let me dream.
In your dream job, how were you received?
Super good! There were the men’s and women’s team [at the hotel], because in the classics they always stay together. I was welcomed by Pablo Ordorica, who made me feel completely at ease – he is a typical southern [European] person, who talks, smiles and offers help. They were super approachable and I felt really good from the first moment on the team, from cyclists to staff… especially the girls, because I became the main [press officer] of the girls, they were very friendly, the boys were a little more shy, but all good.
How did you feel on your first race?
My first race was very chaotic. It was the Flèche Wallone, that horribly cold race. When we arrived at the team park, we knew it was going to rain, but not that it would be as serious as it was. At the time of Movistar’s presentation, I was facing [the riders], it started to snow and after the snow passed, it started to rain heavily. I had to get into a team car to go to one of the supply points. In a supply car, you can do more points [of the course] and end up having more content, because if not much happens in the race, the race car isn’t called to the front and you don’t have access to much information. I knew I had to run, because that car leaves before the real start, and on that day Movistar’s presentation was right next to the start of the race. I wasn’t prepared for that cold and that rain, with a machine that weighs 2 kilos in my hand running around Huy, in other words, it started off as a total adventure (laughs). But in the end everything worked out.
Now that you’re in the routine, how does a race day works for you?
Normally I always do a race analysis, for example, for the Tour I already did a stage-by-stage analysis, to find out key points or which of our athletes would be best for that stage. I always get up at the same time as everyone else, we all have breakfast together to relax before the race. Next, I start to recap everything that will happen in the stage, both details and also some things that the directors may share with me. I’m going to the team presentation to do my normal content and I depend on the supply car being able to reach the finish line, otherwise I’ll take the bus. We do 2 to 3 supplies, then I create video or photo content, and I always provide information on Twitter or Instagram, depending on the impact, on what I’m seeing in the race, with information from procyclingstats or the radio; I analyze the race, what could come next, key moments, key cyclists, and I also try to see who is going to break away and the time differences. I arrive at the finish line and cross my fingers to see if we can win (laughs). It may happen that you win, it may not happen, I do the content at the end of the stage, how they arrive and what type of supply they do. So we may have to go to the podium, we have to go to control and we have to give interviews. At the hotel my real work begins: sitting in front of the computer and looking at photo by photo, editing, creating videos, summarizing the stage, and then posting everything on the Movistar channels. So it’s a busy and sometimes very long day – at the Giro, I woke up every day at 6 am and went to bed at midnight – but a lot of fun, full of work but full of adventures too.
The Giro d’Italia brought the best example of your race day, especially in Liane Lippert’s stage win. How did you live that day?
I remember being at the finish line and not being able to stop. There were about 10 kilometers to go and she had been in the breakaway for a long time, you could see the gap going up and down and you didn’t really know what could happen. It was 43 degrees, unbearably hot, at the finish line, where the Giro had a screen and you could watch it. I knew it had been a horrible year for her [Liane], with a fracture at the beginning, but she had worked a lot, and there was a lot of pressure, not just from the team but personally. I knew that if she won, and I was very confident that she would, it would be a unique moment for everyone, because everyone followed her through the lack of motivation she had, for example, she didn’t do the Vuelta she expected. Seeing Liane Lippert, who at the beginning of the Giro was completely discouraged and thought she wouldn’t be able to win a stage, there fighting, gave me goosebumps… I cried watching her speak in the flash interview, she didn’t cry but there was a tear in the corner of her eye. I remember screaming, being heard across the avenue (laughter), because I could see the excitement on her face, and she could see it in me, and that final hug ended up showing it. More than just co-workers, we have a connection and we can see how important it is, not only for the team, but for her, due to all the pain she has gone through in the last few months. It was, for me, the most special moment with Movistar.
Who are your best friends on the team?
Everyone from the staff is incredible, but I often share a room with Lide [Larrañaga], who is a masseuse and also does supplies. I would say Lide, we share a lot of moments, when sometimes we get to the room and vent, or when they are having a massage and we are all being silly (laughs). I also have riders, Claire Steels and Mareille Meijering. With Claire Steels, in that Flèche Wallone, a bond ended up being created. She almost went into hypothermia and had to get into the car where I was. The best way for you to meet someone is to have someone smiling next to you, she said: “there was no better way for you to meet me at my worst, so when you meet me at my best, it will be better” (laughs) . She lives in Mallorca, when I went to Mallorca we arranged a dinner and ended up being friends. At the Giro, I had the funniest stage moments with her and Mareille. Mareille is because she is Dutch, she lives 30 minutes from me in the Netherlands, and it is very easy to be with her. Not a very Dutch woman: super friendly, approachable, humble. But I get along with everyone, I think it’s natural in women’s cycling, it’s very easy to get along with everyone.
The Tour de France Femmes is almost here and it starts in the Netherlands, which is where you reside. Will it be more special because it’s at ‘home’?
It will be more special, also for the Dutch public, and Movistar will take the two Dutch riders it has on the team. It’s going to be difficult, a typical Dutch race, with canals and tight roads, a very chaotic start; it will be very useful to have two Dutch women, who know the roads very well. The Netherlands is a country that loves cycling and in terms of landscape it will be incredible, whether it is raining or not.
Are you excited to do Alpe d’Huez?
Alpe d’Huez is a place I’ve been wanting to visit for a while, I think it’s going to be good! Now, am I going to do it by car, or am I going to do it on foot? I don’t know, normally the bus will be able to go up, but sometimes it has to stay down there. Anyway, at Alpe d’Huez, I hope to see an incredible atmosphere, full of people. I think everyone has already climbed it, I know that at least Mareille has already recognized the stage – in the Netherlands, there is a fundraiser that involves Dutch people traveling to Alpe d’Huez and climbing it. I had some climbs in the Giro that were hair-raising, but being Alpe d’Huez, I expect nothing less.
Finally, do you have any predictions for the race?
It’s going to be a very difficult Tour, but taking into account the race I saw from Liane Lippert at the Olympic Games, I’m hoping for a stage [win]. I dare not say she’s going to fight for the top 10, considering the riders who will participate in the Tour, a top 10 is difficult, but a stage is possible. I also hope from Mareille Meijering, because she was right on the doorstep of the top 10 at the Giro. I dare not say she’s going to win a stage, because Demi Vollering will try all the mountain stages, but I’m hoping for some top 10s and maybe a podium.
We thank Melissa Silva for granting us this interview and we wish you a good continuation of her journey with Movistar Team.
Photos: Melissa Silva
