Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) has played down the chances of a strong GC performance in the Vuelta a España despite claims from Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) that Valverde is on a level pegging with the main overall favourites.
Contador has argued during the build-up to the Vuelta that the race route – with ten summit finishes but few full-on mountain stages, and bonus seconds throughout – is most suited to Valverde. Also, together with Contador himself, Valverde is the only other former winner of the Vuelta present on the start line in Ourense.
In L’Equipe’s pre-race ranking of each favourite on Saturday, meanwhile, Valverde gets three stars out of a possible six, the same as Esteban Chaves (Orica-BikeExchange). For the record, Contador and Chris Froome (Sky) get five out of six, Nairo Quintana (Movistar) four, Chaves and Valverde three, Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Louis Meintjes (Lampre) two, and Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing), and Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale) one each.
ADVERTISEMENT
Experience is certainly on Valverde’s side. Since 2003, his worst placing in the Vuelta is seventh overall last year, when he also won the points jersey and a stage after racing the Tour de France full on to secure a podium position in Paris. Valverde won the Vuelta in 2009 and has finished on the podium a further five times.
Valverde told the Spanish news agency EFE that he is “not racing with any ambition for the overall, with no kind of pressure and that obviously makes me feel more relaxed.”
However, it seems that almost despite himself, Valverde has not completely ruled out going for the GC, either. At the Tour, after all, Valverde was supposedly not a contender for a high overall finish, yet he ended up sixth, following his third place finish at his first ever Giro d’Italia.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2b8fCOC
No comments:
Post a Comment