David Valero, ready to compete for a medal in a World Cup that could be historic

David Valero will be looking for his second straight medal at a World Championship this Saturdayafter preparing for more than a month specifically for it, with the idea of ​​being in the lead in a race that has many ingredients to make cross-country mountain bike history.

Contesting the World Cups in one place, with all the disciplines, already made Glasgow a very special competition, but in the case of men’s cross-country mountain biking it has even more unique tones, especially because the favorite, Nino Schurter, came ready to expand his legend with what was his eleventh World Championship.

In addition, there are a small number of riders with options, especially in a one-day race, for whom it is likely that – he will not confirm it until the last minute – the world champion of cyclocross and road, the Dutch Mathieu van der Poel, who, if he wins, will achieve something that no one has achieved so farwin three world titles in the same year, in three different modalities.

In truth, Van der Poel has not focused on this discipline for a long time, which, a priori, leaves him with fewer options whose runners used to be in the top positions in the World Cup, like the Frenchman Jordan Sarrou or the Italian Luca Braidot; or “specialists” in one-day races, such as the British Thomas Pidcock or the recent European champion, the Romanian (based in La Rioja), Vlad Dascalu.

LONG PREPARATION

Who also prepared the World Cup for a long time is David Valero who, even, by giving up competing for a month, fell from number one in the world ranking to position threebehind Schurter and Frenchman Sarrou, after leading the world rankings for ten months.

“I know I will fall from number one, but I designed the preparation like this, to get to some very important weeks well.“, the Andalusian runner explained to EFE before traveling to Scotland, where he began the “peak” of his season, first in the World Cup and then in the World Cup races.

In any case, “starting a World Championship with one of the first numbers is something incredible” and it also benefits him, because he will start in the first row, something that will not happen to him in World Cup, where the “grid ” is decided by the results of short races in which he is not a specialist.

Valero was the star of the last World Cup, because of his fight for gold with Schurter and he prepared himself to “get to that level and push his body to the limit” and “the truth is that I’m beautiful”, assured the BH runner, knowing that everyone “prepared well for the World Cup”.

Wait, he detailed, “to make a difficult race, in a strong march all the time” that what best suits his conditions “and it is necessary to avoid having a strong change of rhythm” because that is the most harmful to him, he recognized.

CAME IN GOOD TIME

The Spanish coach, Mikel Zabala, confirmed, in statements to EFE, that Valero “arrived at a good time” in the World Cup, although he considered “that it is one of the most open of those last year, there were many medal contenders like him”..

He also believes that “Valero is benefiting from going forward.” “I hope that he will not expose himself too much at the beginning, because it will be very important how the energy is managed in this circuit, which is short, difficult and also has technical sections.”

Zabala will be attentive on Saturday to the evolution of the rest of the Spanish men’s team (Pablo Rodríguez, David Campos, Jofre Cullel) but before that he will pay special attention to the women’s event, where Rocío del Alba will try to make a step forward in his aspirations to attend the Olympic Games.

After a serious injury he returned to the Spanish Championship and the effort paid off. “Now we will see how far he has progressed” although “I see him on an upward line”, stated the coach.