Valverde to ride 2012 Vuelta
10 August 2012

Vuelta a España

After his appearance in the Tour de France and the Olympic Games, the Murcian will be part of the 9-man roster from Movistar Team for the Spanish grandtour

Despite not making part of his initial competitive schedule for 2012, Alejandro Valverde will be taking the start of the Vuelta a España, starting in Pamplona on next Saturday. After a short break following his appearance in the Tour de France, where he conquered the last mountain stage, and the London Olympic Games, the rider from Murcia agreed with the technical board of the squad to compete in the Spanish grandtour. “I was thinking about it already in the last stages of the Tour, but we preferred to wait and see how my body was to recover after those three weeks and the additional effort of London,” says Valverde. “After the Olympics, I took a couple of days off the bike and started training afterwards, soft rides to kick off and then some strength, and I found myself well. My goals in the Vuelta will be fighting for stage wins, since some finishes suit me well, and helping out Juanjo Cobo, who will be our team leader. I know most of the route, but I had no time to recon some of the new stages, because I chose to rest in the few days I had after the Games were over.”

After almost two years of inactivity and a busy start for his season, when he notched up four victories –stages at the Tour Down Under and Paris-Nice, plus a stage and the overall in the Vuelta a Andalucía-, the unability to squeeze his physical condition in the first half of the Tour after several crashes, plus the good condition when he finished the Grande Boucle, made Valverde focus on his return to the Vuelta a España, which brings some good memories to him after winning in his last participation (2009). Valverde, together with reigning champion Juanjo Cobo, will be part of Movistar Team’s nine-man squad for the Spanish grandtour, to be confirmed on Monday.