Valverde: "The goal is to say goodbye to Giro by winning a stage"

Alexander Valverde (Movistar) will start this Friday in Budapest in the second Italy is spinning at 42 years of age. In his final season as a professional, Murcian arrived “with enthusiasm and a willingness to fight for the goal of achieving success on stage.”

“For me it was important to go back to the Giro, I had only ridden once, and in the past year I wanted to go. I will start with enthusiasm, I want to have a good career, and for me to finish well I can achieve success on stage. The general is difficult, because of my age and the three weeks of competition ”, said the 2018 World Champion at a press conference from Budapest.

Valverde will be looking for “his” stage throughout the three weeks, though the start may be favorable to Hungarian stages.

“The first stage is going to be demanding, good for a pure sprinter, but we’ll see what can be done. They are all strong, it suits Van der Poel. We have three weeks ahead to look for stages and there is no need to have pressure ”, commented.

This “El Bala” has confirmed that it is his final year, and his final races are set for the Vuelta a España, the World Championship and the Giro de Lombardía. “Yeah, that’s my idea. The last race was Il Lombardía, a test I loved“.

About your partner’s choices Ivan Sosa In the overall classification, Valverde expects the same thing to happen as in 2019 with Richard Carapaz, when he won the Vuelta a Asturias, like Sosa this year, and then won the pink jersey. “Hopefully, I wish he had made at least one podium. I see his motivation and he reminded me of his success in Asturias of the successful year of Carapaz“.

Certainly the Ecuadorian cyclist, Olympic champion on the road, is Valverde’s favorite to win the 105th edition of the Giro, along with Portuguese Joao Almeida and British Simon Yates.