FREEDOM. The pleasure of riding a bike is what will forever remain. Anyone who enters this webpage will surely be looking for how we described Alejandro Valverde in the last few months of his career. Let us make you know how much we appreciated him. He was arguably the biggest talent Spanish cycling enjoyed, ever. One of the best riders in the 21st century. And someone we miss so dearly at the race as we enjoy, now without any pressure as competitions are gone, off the roads as of 2023. He’s simply irreplaceable, a must-have for the Movistar Team and the Abarca Sports organisation.

UNTIL THE LAST DROP FALLS. “42 years old, and I’m still as motivated as ever.” A sentence from Alejandro to the cameras of ‘El Día Menos Pensado’ during one of his last few races. The end to his 2022 season, and his career, was almost what we all dreamt of. It was so close to one final victory -finished 2nd in the Coppa Agostoni and 3rd, behind no less than Pogacar and Higuita, at Tre Valli Varesine-, yet seeing him riding within the best in Lombardia (6th) and Emilia (4th), with almost double the age of his competitors and no signs of fatigue, was only possible with his quality. Not even the physical and mental consequences of his road incident in July left a mark on ‘Bala’, who could bid farewell as he deserved: on top.

ENDLESS PALMARÈS. ‘El Bala’, ‘El Imbatido’ or, simply and as he likes best, ‘Balaverde’, ammassed 133 victories during his 20-year career. The biggest ones are surely his 2018 Worlds road race success in Innsbruck, his 2009 La Vuelta and his four UCI yearly world titles, yet there’s absolutely everything into that list. Five Flèches Wallonnes, four Liège-Bastogne-Liège, GC podiums in the Giro and the Tour, twelve stages of La Vuelta, four in the ‘Grande Boucle’, two Dauphinés, three Voltas a Catalunya, 2 Clásicas de San Sebastián – we could continue typing them down and this paragraph would never end, and those numbers wouldn’t make justice to his greatness. Both the sporting one and, more importantly, the human one -a crucial factor for the team’s cohesion and success; a loving husband and father of five kids; head of his own youth team-. An absolute star, in all senses.