Cycling Weekly — February 08, 2018

(Jacob Rumans) #1
y the time most professional
riders reach their late thirties,
their careers tend to be
winding to a close. They might show
flashes of their previous selves, but you
wouldn’t generally expect someone of
that age to perform as well as they did
10 or even five years ago.
Not Alejandro Valverde, however.
Now 37 years old, the Spaniard last
week won the Volta a la Comunitat
Valenciana — a five-day stage race held
within the Valencian Community —
with the consummate ease of a rider still
at the very top of his game.
Even more remarkably, the overall
win comes after Valverde had spent
the past seven months recuperating

from a fractured kneecap and talus
bone sustained in a horrible crash at the
prologue of the 2017 Tour de France.
You wouldn’t have guessed it from the
way he bossed the field in Valencia, but
there were doubts whether Valverde
could return at all, let alone to his best.
This is the second time in his career
that Valverde has bounced back from
a prolonged absence, having made
a similarly successful return in 2012
following a doping ban (a blot that will
forever sully his reputation), and his
longevity in the sport is reflected by the
fact that this is his record-breaking third
Valenciana title, having previously won
it way back in 2007 and 2004.
The manner of his win was particularly
startling. He became overall leader by

winning stage two from a three-man
breakaway group also featuring Astana
duo Luis León Sánchez and Jakob
Fuglsang, and retained the yellow
jersey heading into the decisive summit
finish at Cocentaina after stage three’s
team time trial was neutralised due to
bad weather.
Despite successfully isolating
Valverde, the expected attack from the
Astana riders did not materialise on that
climb, leaving it to Britain’s Adam Yates
(Mitchelton-Scott) to animate the race.
Yates led the race as the summit
loomed, but in the steep final kilometre
— the kind of finish Valverde has made
a career specialising in — the Spaniard
clawed him back to win the stage and
emphatically seal overall victory.

Valverde makes victorious


return in Valencia


Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana | February 7-11 | Spain


Stephen Puddicombe

Photo: Cor Vos


Racing


54 | February 8, 2018 | Cycling Weekly
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