This is the first bike shop to help Alejandro Valverde

Alejandro Valverde retired this Saturday in Lombardy. The EFE agency traveled to Puente Tocinos (Murcia) to discover Borrascas Bicycles, the first shop that bet on him when he was a pledge. At 42 years old, the cyclist leads the ‘Valverde Team’ even with the support of Borrascas and the Ricardo Fuentes tuna company.

Ricado Fuentes is the world leader in the production of bluefin tuna, with a turnover of more than 300 million euros (70 percent in exports to Japan), headquartered in Cartagena and born from nothing more than half a century the past The bike shop, based in the Murcian district of Puente Tocinos, was founded in 1994 and it started as a support for the runner before moving up to the professional field.

Both Valverde, the corridor of the small town of Las Lumbreras (4,000 inhabitants), are linked, because the tuna giant -with facilities in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Malta, Morocco and Tunisia- is the main sponsor of the Valverde Team that leads . for ten years, and Bicicletas Borrascas has been the supplier of cadets, juniors and elite and sub-23 teams formed and competing under international cyclists.

“I have known him since he was a child and he went to the store with his father and his brother Juan Francisco, where I was competing.. In fact, he fixed the bike here and now he visits us to say hello and he will have more time to do it,” Juan José Calatayud, owner of Bicicletas Borrascas, tells EFE, pointing out that after the fall that Valverde experienced at the 2017 Tour de France gave him a roller to practice at home.

Borrascas also supplies bikes to the Valverde Team-Ricardo Fuentes team, a formation with a base category up to sub-23 and also a school and Alejandro himself sponsors and promotes.

The world’s leading company in the production and marketing of bluefin tuna and other fresh and frozen fish appears as a sponsor in this club, which has its base in the Cartagena deputation of La Palma and has been operating since the 1950s.

They are two of the companies that join their name to Valverde, a “symbol” for cycling and Spanish sport and “a universal neighbor of Murcia”, as people who know one from Las Lumbreras de Monteagudo say.

His departure will leave a huge void after two decades of competing at the highest level and cycling fans used to a life of epic days and great victories, no less than 133, including a world title in 2018 and a Vuelta a España in 2009.

“In Murcia he is an icon and leaving him is a big loss on a professional level, but we will enjoy him more here and, even if it is a setback, we will assimilate it.“, said Calatayud, wearing Valverde’s rainbow jersey as world champion that he signed and framed in his shop like a jewel.

“It’s an honor to enjoy it and I think he will continue to be associated with cycling, although he says very little about his professional life. The bike is his life and in this sport he is possibly the best Spanish cyclist of all time and Miguel Indurain said the same thing“, someone also tells EFE that before becoming a businessman, he also excelled in pedaling and became champion of Spain in 1987.

After a long time, he met Alejandro on the road. “We are neighbors on the beach, in La Torre de la Horadada, and we go out with the people of Los Alcázares and also with the ‘grupeta’ of Murcia”, he said while assuming that El Bala will not stop cycling: “He lives for the bike because he loves it and I’m sure he will continue to train often.“.

This feeling of admiration for Alejandro is shared in Las Lumbreras, a town where the cyclist usually returns to be with his parents.

María Isabel and Samuel Pérez, siblings who own the tobacconist-bar El Garrofero, where of course there is a signed picture of Valverde, naturally let them know.

“At his age, it was time for him to leave after doing so much for his people.where he goes less, but when he passed by the road with his bicycle, old people greeted him outside and he stopped to talk to them,” said María Isabel.

“It is a pride that it is from Las Lumbreras and I, who because of work often travel, when they ask me where I’m from, I say that I’m from the same place as Alejandro Valverde and it starts to ring. That has happened to me all over Spain and even in Mexico and he is universal,” Samuel admitted.

Conchi Espín, also a resident of Las Lumbreras, expressed himself in similar terms and considered that It is “an honor” to be from the same town as Valverde.

“Alejandro and my wife often hang out and bike together and I still remember in 2018, after he won the World Cup in Austria, we took the bus to the reception they gave him in the Autonomous Community and the City Council of Murcia “, indicates.