Rafael Valls came close to walking away from cycling after the 2014 season, such was the string of injury, illness, and misfortune he’d had to endure since turning professional in 2010.
2015 seemed to represent a turning point as top ten results at Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya followed a victory at the Tour of Oman, but the bad luck returned in 2016 as the Spaniard endured what he describes as "the most difficult season I've ever had" in his debut campaign with Lotto Soudal.
Now heading into the 2017 season he's hoping to prove – to himself as much as anyone – that 2015 was not just a one-off. He will kick off the campaign at Tour Down Under, a race that has been cruel – a broken humerus in 2014 – but also kind – he was 8th in 2016 and 12th in 2013.
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Last year's performance indicated a continuation of the form of 2015, but Valls then crashed at Strade Bianche and was ill at Tirreno-Adriatico and other key moments, abandoning at Catalunya. Then in June he suffered a freak accident at home, falling over while playing with his daughter and fracturing a shoulder bone.
He realigned his end of season objectives and was full of confidence heading into the Tour de Pologne, with high hopes for the Vuelta a Espana, but he crashed on the third stage in Poland and broke his pelvis. His season was over.
"The truth is it was the most difficult season I've ever had. I was never able to show what I'm capable of; I was never at 100 per cent. It started well at the Tour Down Under but after that I had no luck and wasn’t able to see a return on the work I'd put in," Valls told Cyclingnews at Lotto Soudal's training camp on Mallorca.
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