Alejandro Valverde

Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (born 25 April 1980) is a Spanish cyclist, who competed as a professional in road bicycle racing from 2002 to 2022, and now competes in gravel cycling for the Movistar Team Gravel Squad.

Valverde turned professional in 2002 when he signed a contract with the Spanish team, with whom he stayed until the end of the 2004 season.

Prior to his Worlds win, he already held the record for most medals won at World Championships – he twice collected the silver medal in the World Championships, in 2003 and 2005, as well as the bronze four times in 2006, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Valverde entered thirty-two Grand Tours, finished twenty-seven of them and placed in the top ten of the general classification on twenty occasions.

He also shares the record for most wins in the Points classification in the Vuelta a España (four times) with Sean Kelly and Laurent Jalabert.

Valverde is rare in combining different specialties in road bicycle racing, being a strong climbing specialist, sprinter and a good time-trialist.

The online database Cycling Ranking ranks him as the 3rd most successful cyclist of all time.

Born in Las Lumbreras, Murcia, Valverde came from a cycling family, his father Juan was an amateur bicycle racer and bought him a bike when he was six years old.

His brother Juan Francisco was also an amateur road racing cyclist.

Valverde's first race was in Jumilla, in his region of Murcia, and he finished second.

On the following week he won his second race in Yecla.

He allegedly took more than fifty consecutive victories between 11 and 13 years old, earning him the nickname El Imbatido (The Unbeaten).

Due to his many wins, Valverde was offered to ride for the elite amateur team Banesto based in Navarre, some distance away from his home in Murcia.

Perhaps due to the exhaustion from having to travel back and forth every weekend, his performance suffered while with the team.

He moved to the development team of the professional squad and was coached by Francisco Moya, whom he credited with helping him become a better cyclist.

Kelme also promised to allow him to move to the professional squad if he showed good performance.

At the end of his first season with the Kelme amateur squad, they offered to move him to the professional squad.

During his time with Kelme he had a breakthrough year in the 2003 Vuelta a España, where he won two stages and finished third in the General classification.

That year he also won the Vuelta a Mallorca and a stage in Tour of the Basque Country and other Spanish races like GP Primavera and GP Villafranca de Ordizia.

He ended the season with a second place in the 2003 UCI Road World Championships behind Igor Astarloa after winning the sprint ahead of Peter Van Petegem and Paolo Bettini.

In the 2004 season he decided to stay with Kelme despite the team's financial woes and offers from other teams.

He went on to win the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, the Vuelta a Murcia, a stage in the Tour of the Basque Country, the Vuelta a Burgos and taking fourth in the Vuelta a España.

Although he won a stage in the Vuelta, he was injured in a crash that forced him to downscale his ambitions in the overall classification.

He also participated in the Summer Olympics.

Valverde joined the UCI ProTeam in 2005.

He won the last stage in Paris–Nice and finished second overall behind Bobby Julich.

He also took two stages in the Tour of the Basque Country.

In 2006, Valverde won a stage in the Tour of the Basque Country, finishing 2nd overall and capturing the points competition.

He then completed a prestigious double in the Spring classics, winning La Flèche Wallonne and taking victory four days later at Liège–Bastogne–Liège.

Valverde subsequently won a stage in the Tour de Romandie finishing 3rd overall.

Valverde planned to challenge at the 2006 Tour de France, and stated that he hoped to win in the future.

He went to the Pinarello bicycle factory in Treviso, Italy, to optimize his time-trialing performance.

During his road racing career, Valverde took 133 professional victories, with some of his biggest wins having been the Vuelta a España in 2009, the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2008 and 2009, the Tour of the Basque Country in 2017, the Volta a Catalunya in 2009, 2017 and 2018, Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 2006, 2008, 2015 and 2017, La Flèche Wallonne in 2006, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, the Clásica de San Sebastián in 2008 and 2014, the 2006 and 2008 UCI ProTours, the 2014 and 2015 UCI World Tours, and the road race in the 2018 World Championships.

In his first ever appearance at the Tour de France, he won the 10th stage of the Tour de France ahead of Lance Armstrong, whom he beat in the sprint into Courchevel at the end of a mountain stage in the Alps.

After Stage 12, he was in 5th place on GC, 3 minutes and 16 seconds behind Armstrong.

He was also leading in the young rider classification (white jersey), with a 3-minute and 9 second lead on Armstrong's teammate Yaroslav Popovych.

However, Valverde was forced to withdraw from the Tour during the 13th stage because of a knee injury.

Valverde recovered barely in time for the UCI Road World Championships in Madrid, Spain.

The injury of Óscar Freire, who was the Spanish team captain, forced him to become the team leader, despite having had only one day of competition before the Worlds.

Amazingly, he was able to be competitive and finished second to winner Tom Boonen.