Alejandro Valverde

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Alejandro Valverde Road cycling
Alejandro Valverde as road world champion 2018
Alejandro Valverde as road world champion 2018
To person
Nickname Balaverde
Date of birth April 25, 1980
nation SpainSpain Spain
discipline Street
To the team
Current team Movistar
function driver
doping
2009-2011 Fuentes doping scandal
Team (s)
2002–2004
2005– 		Comunidad Valenciana-Kelme
Caisse d'Epargne / Movistar
Most important successes
Grand Tours

Golden jerseyOverall standings Vuelta a España 2009
one stage Giro d'Italia
four stages Tour de France
twelve stages Vuelta a España

World championships

World ChampionRoad races 2018
silverRoad races 2003 and 2005
bronzeRoad races 2006, 2012, 2013 and 2014

classic

Liège – Bastogne – Liège 2006 , 2008, 2015 , 2017
La Flèche Wallonne 2006, 2014, 2015 , 2016 , 2017

Racing series

UCI ProTour leader jersey UCI ProTour individual ranking 2006 , 2008 UCI WorldTour individual ranking 2014 , 2015
Union-Cycliste-Internationale-Logo.svg

Last updated: September 2, 2019

Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (born April 25, 1980 in Las Lumbreras , Murcia ) is a Spanish cyclist . His greatest successes include winning the 2018 Road World Championship, overall victory in the Vuelta a España in 2009 and four victories at the classic Liège – Bastogne – Liège . Because of his involvement in the Fuentes doping scandal , he was banned for two years in 2010.

Career

First successes and Vuelta a España victory

Valverde began his professional career in 2002 with the Spanish cycling team Kelme-Costa Blanca . In 2003, the then 23-year-old Valverde was able to achieve two stage wins and third place in the overall standings at the Vuelta a España . At the road cycling world championship in Hamilton , he placed behind another Spaniard, Igor Astarloa , in second place. In 2004 he won several smaller Spanish stage races , the Tour of Murcia , the Tour of Valencia and the Tour of Burgos , in which he won three of the four stages. In addition, Valverde achieved fourth place overall in the Tour of Spain despite a serious fall on the eleventh stage.

In 2005 Valverde moved to the Illes Balears team , which received a license as a ProTeam in the newly created UCI ProTour . He competed for this team in the 2005 Tour de France , where he won the mountain finish of the 10th stage in Courchevel in a two-man sprint in front of Lance Armstrong , but gave up on the 13th stage due to knee problems. In autumn Valverde was runner-up behind Tom Boonen in the sprint of a 23-man leading group at the 2005 Road World Championships.

In the following year Valverde won the UCI ProTour overall ranking . His classic victories at the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, as well as second place at the Vuelta a España , contributed to this success . However , he had to give up the Tour de France 2006 on the 3rd stage from Esch-sur-Alzette to Valkenburg after a fall around 20 km before the finish line in which he broke his collarbone . At the end of the season, Valverde took third place at the road world championships in Salzburg .

The victory in the overall standings of the ProTour Valverde was in 2008 after victories in Liege-Bastogne-Liege the stage race Criterium du Dauphine Libere and the Clásica San Sebastián repeat. At the Tour de France 2008 , which this year, like the Vuelta a España 2008, did not belong to the ProTour, he won the first stage , took over the yellow jersey and was ninth overall - eighth after the subsequent disqualification of Bernhard Kohl - and was able to do so thus not quite confirming the sixth place from the previous year . Valverde scored another victory in the 2nd stage of the Tour of Spain, in which he led the overall standings and finally came in fifth.

Valverde's greatest career success to date was the overall victory of the Vuelta a España in 2009 , which he won 55 seconds ahead of Samuel Sánchez , after taking the overall lead on the ninth stage. Although he did not win a stage, he did not give up the gold jersey until the final stage in Madrid .

Doping ban

After Valverde's former team Kelme (later name: Comunidad Valenciana) and other former drivers of the team such as Óscar Sevilla , Santiago Botero and José Enrique Gutierrez were suspected of having carried out blood doping under the direction of Eufemiano Fuentes , on the day of At the final time trial of the Vuelta on September 16, 2006 it was announced that Alejandro Valverde should also be on the doping list in Fuentes. On a document that was seized as part of the house searches in the Fuentes doping scandal in May 2006, the abbreviation “Valv. (Piti) ”, where“ Piti ”was the name of Valverde's dog. The document is a table of contents for a refrigerator in which blood products were stored.

The allegations in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of June 19, 2006 were denied by the Spanish Cycling Association, but in May 2007 more precise information and documents emerged. Furthermore, blood samples that were taken from Valverde after crossing the finish line on the occasion of the Italy tasting on the 15th stage of the Tour de France 2008 and compared with the Fuentes material served as evidence. On May 11, 2009, Valverde was banned from the National Olympic Committee of Italy for two years. This penalty applied to all races on Italian soil. So he was not allowed to drive the Tour de France 2009 , as it was again on Italian roads.

Valverde's lawyers appealed the judgment to the International Court of Justice (CAS) without success , so that he was banned from all Italian races until May 10, 2011. On May 31, 2010, the CAS issued a two-year ban on Valverde with retroactive effect from January 1, 2010. He was banned worldwide until December 31, 2011 because of his involvement in the blood doping scandal involving the Madrid gynecologist Eufemiano Fuentes.

Comeback and world championship title

In the final sprint, Valverde defeated Romain Bardet , Michael Woods and Tom Dumoulin
Valverde at the Tour de Romandie 2010

After the end of his doping ban, Valverde built on his previous successes: He won bronze medals at the road world championships in 2012 , 2013 and 2014 . He repeated his victories at the Flèche Wallonne and the Clásica San Sebastián in 2014. At the Vuelta a España 2012 he came second, 2013 and 2014 third. He won the individual classification of the UCI WorldTour 2014 . In 2015, he won for the third time classic Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege and he could see the Tour de France as a third party for the first time on the podium finish. In the 2015 season he was able to repeat the victory in the individual classification of the UCI WorldTour . In 2016 Valverde won the Flèche Wallonne for the fourth time and became the sole record winner of this classic. In the following year 2017 he was able to repeat this success and is now the undisputed record winner with five wins.

His participation in the Giro d'Italia 2016 was Valverde's first start on the Tour of Italy. He finished the tour 1:17 minutes behind the winner Vincenzo Nibali in third and was on the podium once in all three major country tours . With the exception of the Tour de France 2012 , the Vuelta a España 2016 and the Tour de France 2018 , at the end of the 2019 season he also completed all 22 Grand Tours that he was able to finish in a place in the top ten.

In spring 2017, he won the Vuelta a Murcia, the overall ranking of the Tour of Andalusia , the Tour of Catalonia and the Tour of the Basque Country . Furthermore, he won his fifth Flèche Wallonne and a little later for the fourth time Liège – Bastogne – Liège , after countering an attack by Daniel Martin on the finish slope and beating him in the sprint. The Spaniard was equal to Moreno Argentin with four wins, only Eddy Merckx even won the race five times. On July 1, 2017, Valverde started the individual time trial of the Tour de France in Düsseldorf and fell on a wet track. He broke his kneecap and left ankle bone and suffered a deep cut on his shin . He was operated on immediately afterwards.

In 2018 he won the overall ranking of the Tour of Valencia , the Abu Dhabi Tour and the Tour of Catalonia . At the Flèche Wallonne he finished second behind Julian Alaphilippe . In addition, Valverde started at the Vuelta a España , where he won the 2nd and 8th stage. Up to the 18th stage he was only 25 seconds behind Simon Yates in the overall standings, but he lost time on the last two stages and finally finished the tour 4:28 minutes behind in fifth overall and winner of the points classification.

After a total of six podium places at world championships, the Spaniard became world champion for the first time at the end of the season in Innsbruck when he beat Romain Bardet , Michael Woods and Tom Dumoulin in the sprint of a four-man leading group that had formed on the last climb.

In March 2019 expressed Valverde that he planned his final withdrawal from cycling for 2021, the year after the Olympic Games in Tokyo .

Honors

Alejandro Valverde's place of birth and residence decided in October 2018 to name a street in the city after him. The street borders the Avenida Miguel Induráin .

successes

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Important placements

Grand Tours
Grand Tour 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Maglia Rosa Giro d'Italia - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 3 - - -
Yellow jersey Tour de France - - - DNF DNF 6th 8th - - - 20th 8th 4th 3 6th DNF 14th 9
Red jersey Vuelta a España DNF 3 4th - 2 - 5 1 - - 2 3 3 7th 12 - 5 2
Legend: DNF: did not finish , abandoned or withdrawn from the race due to timeout.
Monuments of cycling
Monument to cycling 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Milan – Sanremo 130 54 - - 24 - - - - - - - - 20th 15th - - 7th
Tour of Flanders - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 8th
Paris – Roubaix - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Liège – Bastogne – Liège - - - 33 1 2 1 19th DSQ - DSQ 3 2 1 16 1 13 -
Lombardy tour - 39 - 12 - - - - - - - 2 2 4th 6th - 11 2
Legend: DSQ: disqualification.

Web links

Commons : Alejandro Valverde  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ radsport-news.com from September 15, 2004: Valverde - the bones are healthy
  2. ↑ radsport-news.com from July 15, 2005: Third stage win for McEwen
  3. ↑ radsport-news.com from September 25, 2005: Tom Boonen new world champion
  4. ↑ radsport-news.com from July 4, 2006: Valverde after falling outside
  5. ↑ a b sueddeutsche.de of May 7, 2007: The next one, please!
  6. ↑ radsport-news.com from May 11, 2009: CONI bans Valverde for two years
  7. ↑ radsport-news.com of March 16, 2010: "CAS rejects Valverde's objection"
  8. ↑ Valverde suspended for two years world-wide, keeps results. In: cyclingnews.com. May 31, 2010, accessed October 21, 2018 .
  9. ^ Valverde wins fourth Liège-Bastogne-Liège. In: velonews.com. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Ibrahim Naber: Alejandro Valverde: Heavy fall overshadows the start of the Tour de France. In: welt.de . July 1, 2017, accessed July 2, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Sport1.de: Tour de France 2017: The five exciters of the opening race. In: sport1.de. July 1, 2017, accessed July 2, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Finally World Cup gold: Valverde at the goal of his dreams. In: radsport-news.com. September 30, 2018, accessed September 30, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Alejandro Valverde plans to retire in 2021: I will have to be home and enjoy the family. In: cyclingpub.com. March 30, 2019, accessed March 30, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Murcia names street after world champion Valverde. In: rad-net.de. October 26, 2018, accessed October 26, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Valverde, Alejandro
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Valverde Belmonte, Alejandro
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH Las Lumbreras, Murcia , Spain