He is the third most veteran cyclist to win a stage in Giro

[Akrapovic]

At 39, he is the third most veteran cyclist to win a stage in Giro, Tour and Vuelta.

The road test of the Salzburg World Cycling Championship (Austria) was over 45 minutes ago. On one side of the room where the press conference would be held were the German Erik Zabel, silver, and the Spanish Alejandro Valverde, bronze. They waited for gold, the Italian Paolo Bettini.
Meanwhile, Valverde and Zabel talked. They commented on the sensations they had in the closed auction, as the three finished with the same time.

“The only thing I would like is to reach your current age, to be a winning cyclist. You were silver in the World Cup, you almost took the gold, ”said Valverde, who was 26 years old on that occasion, 10 less than Zabel.

It has been 13 years and Valverde has not retired, continues to win and is one of the serious candidates to obtain the title of the Tour of Spain, a race in which he already knows what it is to get on the first drawer of the podium, because he obtained the title precisely 10 years ago.
Alejandro Valverde Belmonte was born in Las Lumbreras, Murcia, on April 25, 1980. It measures 1.77 meters and weighs 61 kilos. His father, Juan, was an amateur cyclist, as was his brother, Juan Francisco. Maria, his mother, always supported him. The first bicycle was bought by his father when Alejandro was six years old.

He was part of the Banesto youth team, where he learned fast, went to Kelme-Costa Blanca and premiered as a professional in 2003. Vicente Belda was the coach who guided him and made him debut in the Tour of Spain, but Bala , as it is known, paid the 'right to floor', withdrew.
Hard tests

He has had two difficult moments in his life. The first, on May 31, 2010, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) suspended it two years when it was found that one of the blood bags of Operation Puerto, a doping plot broken down in Spain in 2006, was identified with the name of Val-piti, with what the doctor Eufemiano Fuentes identified.

And the second, in 2017. The prologue of the Tour de France was disputed. He was one of those called to fight the podium. It rained that day. The floor was a soap. The Movistar runner passed straight on a curve and slammed into the railings.

Eusebio Unzué, the team manager, stopped the car, got off. The doctor examined the corridor and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. The opinion was not the best: the kneecap and left talus broke. It seemed that at 36 he was everything to him, but it was not.

“They were not easy moments. I came to think that I would not return. Then I said that I would return, not as strong as before, but it was not so, ”said Wínner Anacona, his partner at Movistar.