Alejandro Valverdewho this Sunday will officially retire as a professional cyclist, said in an interview with Cycling Federation of the Region of Murcia that winning the world title in 2018 at the age of 38 was the “best” of his long and successful career and that from then on he could “retire quietly”.
He has left a message to those who practice his sport: “It’s hard, but if you know how to enjoy it, it’s easier.”
The 42-year-old Murcian veteran runner, who ended 21 years of racing at the highest level, referred to that achievement on September 30, 2018 in Austrian city of Innsbruckthat of Las Lumbreras, from Monteagudo, dealt with after the break forced by a serious fall suffered at Tour de France 2017.
Who accumulated 133 victories in his professional career, got off the bike two decades after his debut with the best -he made his debut in the elite in 2002- and left scratching at a high level until the end.
His last victory was in the general of The Great Road 2022a race in which he also won his final stage.
“From the beginning of the season to the end, everything was amazing. Everything, from the beginning, to the end… made me feel so loved and as my last year, it was amazing for me and I many are satisfied and it is also a pride to retire being at a high level and get victories”, he said.
The bulletwinner of Returned to Spain in 2009 and the first Spaniard to win the prestigious Liège-Bastogne-LiègeAmong many other achievements, he has accumulated no less than 32 participations in the main stages of the race: Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España.
“Many. In 2016 I did the Giro, the Tour, the Olympics and the Vuelta. I did the three big ones and more than that in front and very complicated, but also very beautiful”, said this athlete enjoying what. he does it all his life.
“I am methodical for everything and I want to train and enjoy and do it at home with the good ‘group’ we have, the environment, the weather… I feel very comfortable in Murcia and being able to train here. Having my teammates at the beginning It made me ride a bike many times when I didn’t feel like going out to train and those training sessions were worth two”, met who remembered his beginnings, where his father, a veteran cyclist, instilled in him a passion for this sport.
“They have very good memories. I started cycling because this sport lived a lot at home. I started riding a bike with smaller wheels. Then they bought me one. MBK, with normal wheels. Not the first time out, but the second time we did go to the beach and we came back and I was not yet nine years old. It was a major beating,” he revealed.
Soon, he played his first race in Jumilla, for the schools of the Murcian federation, where he finished second and in the following one, a week later, he won the second in which he took part, in Yecla .
All the past and the future will continue to connect you to the pedal, although from a different perspective. In 2023, although he will no longer compete, he will continue with the Movistar team: “I will be the link between the directors and the riders to improve communication within the team. In addition, I will act as an ambassador “, he pointed out.
Source: La Verdad
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