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Alejandro Valverde Photo Gallery

Major victories | Teams | Nicknames | Photo gallery

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Alejandro Valverde (born April 25, 1980) retired in 2022 after finishing sixth in the late-season classic Il Lombardia (Tour of Lombardy). The Cycle Ranking site lists Valverde as the third most successful racer ever, behind Eddy Merckx and Sean Kelly.

Valverde possessed a complete bike racer's tool set. He could sprint and time trial well and climb with all but the specialists, making him a formidable competitor.

Valverde's career is not without the taint of doping. He was linked to the 2006 Operacion Puerto blood doping affair, but fought against his accusers for years, maintaining his innocence. In May of 2010 the Court for the Arbitration for Sport upheld the UCI's & World Anti-Doping Agency's appeals and banned Valverde from the sport for two years. He was stripped of his 2010 results and did not compete in 2011.

Her returned to racing in 2012 for the Movistar team.

Valverde had a natural talent for bike racing, winning races from the very start, when he was just nine years old.

He rode for amateur teams for eleven years, turning pro in 2002 for Kelme-Costa Blanca.

He stuck with the Kelme team for three years, despite its financial troubles. In 2005 he signed with the Illes Balears team and stayed with them for the rest of his career. The team had numerous name changes, but it was essentially the same team.

During those years he assembled that stunning list of wins, including a World Road Championship, Classics and one-week stage races. He has one Grand Tour win, the 2009 Vuelta a España.

Valverde's last race was that 2022 Il Lombardia, where he finished sixth, at the ripe old age of 42.

Major victories & high placings:

2003:

Klasika Primavera
Stage 3 Vuelta a Aragon
2nd place World Road Championships
3rd place Vuelta a España, winning stage 9 & 15
Tour of the Basque Country points classification

2004:

Vuelta a Burgos, winning stages 1, 2 & 3
Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, winning stages 2 & 3
Vuelta a Murcia
Trofeo Cala Millor
Klasika Primavera

2005:

Tour of the Basque Country, winning stages 3 & 4
Trofeo Manacor
Trofeo Soller
Tour de France stage 10
2nd place Paris-Nice, winning stage 7 & young rider classification
2nd place World Road Championships

2006:

La Flèche Wallone
Liège-Bastogne-Liège
2nd place Vuelta a España, winning stage 7
2nd place Tour of the Basque Country, winning stage one and the points classification

2007:

Vuelta a Murcia, winning stage 4
Vuelta a la Comunitat Valenciana

2008:

Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, winning stage 1 & 3 plust the points classification
Vuelta a Murcia, winning stage 4
Liège-Bastogne-Liège
Clásica de San Sebastián
Paris-Camembert
Tour de France stages 1 & 6

2009:

Vuelta a España winning also the Combination Classification
Volta a Catalunya, winning stage 33
Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
Vuelta a Burgos
Klasika Primavera

2010: He was stripped of these results.

~~Tour de Romandie, winning stage 5~~
~~Tour Méditerranéen~~
~~2nd place Paris-Nice~~
~~2nd place Tour of the Basque Country, winning stages 1 & 2 plus the points classification~~

2012:

Vuelta a Andalucia, winning stage 2 and the points classification
Tour de France stage 17
2nd place Vuelta a España, winning stage 3 & 8 plus the points and combination classifications
2nd place Tour Down Under, winning stage 5
3rd place Paris-Nice, winning stage 3

2013:

Vuelta a Andalucia, winning the prologue and stage 3 plus the points classification
Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana
2nd place Giro di Lombardia
3rd place Vuelta a España, plus the points classification.

2014:

Spanish time trial championships, 2nd in the road race
Vuelta a Andalucia, plus the points & combination classifications and the prologue, stages 1 & 2
Vuelta a Murcia
GP Miguel Induráin
La Flèche Wallonne
Clásica de San Sebastián
2nd place Liège-Bastogne-Liège
2nd place Giro di Lombardia
3rd place Vuelta a España, winning stages 1 & 6
3rd place World Road Championships

2015:

Liège-Bastogne-Liège
La Flèche Wallonne
Spanish road championships
Vuelta a España points classification & stage 4
2nd place Volta a Catalunya, winning stage 2, 5 & 7
2nd place Amstel Gold Race

2016:

Vuelta a Castilla y León, also winning combination & points classifications & stages 2 & 3
Vuelta a Andalucia, winning stage 5
La Flèche Wallonne
2nd place Vuelta a Murcia
3rd place Giro d'Italia, winning stage 16

2017:

Volta a Catalunya, winning also the mountains classification and stages 3, 5 & 7
Tour of the Basque Country, also winning the points classification and stage 5
Vuelta a Andalucia, also winning the points classification and stage 1
Liège-Bastogne-Liège
La Flèche Wallonne
Vuelta a Murcia

2018:

World Road Championship
Volta a Catalunya, also winning the mountains classification and stages 2 & 4
Route d'Occitanie, winning also the points classification and stage 3
Abu Dhabi Tour, also winning stage 5
Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, also winning stage 2 & 4
GP Miguel Induráin

2019:

Spanish road championships
Route d'Occitanie, also winning stage 1
2nd place Vuelta a España, also winning stage 7
2nd place UAE Tour, also winning stage 3
2nd place Giro di Lombardia

2020:

2nd place Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana

2021:

GP Miguel Induráin
Critérium du Dauphiné stage 6
2nd place Giro di Sicilia, also winning stage 6
3rd place La Flèche Wallonne

2022:

O Gran Camiño, also winning the points classification and stage 3
Trofeo Pollença-Port d'Andratx
2nd place La Flèche Wallonne
2nd place Strade Bianche
2nd place Coppa Agostoni
2nd place Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana

Professional Teams:

2002-2004: Kelme-Costa Blanca
2005: Illes Balears-Banesto & Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne
2006: Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears
2007-2010: Caisse d'Epargne
2011 - 2022: Movistar

Note: The teams Valverde rode for from the 2005 through 2022 were different names for the same team that began in 1980 as Reynolds.

Nicknames: El Bala (The Bullet), El Imbatito (The Unbeaten)

Photos: All are by Fotoreporter Sirotti

Valverde before the start of the 2009 Vuelta a España

A wet and muddy Valverde finishes Vuelta stage 14.

Valverde time trialing in stage 21 of the 2009 Vuelta a España.

World Champion Cadel Evans with Valverde at the 2010 Fleche Wallone.

Valverde and Alexander Vinokourov racing in stage three of the 2010 Tour of the Mediterranean.

Valverde at some point in the 2012 Tour Down Under.

Valverde wins stage five of the 2012 Tour Down Under.

He celebrates his victory.

Valverde checks out the Liege-Bastogne-Liege course in 2012.

Time trialing in stage 19 of the 2012 Tour de France.

Valverde wins stage three of the 202 Vuela a España.

And his reward is the GC leader's red jersey.

Climbing in the 2013 Roma Maxima single-day race.

Valverde winning the field sprint of the 2013 Amstel Gold Race

Time trialing in stage 13 of the 2013 Tour de France with Mont St. Michel behind him.

Nicolas Roche and Valverde climbing to the finish through a narrow defile of fans in stage 18 of the 2013 Vuelta a España.

Before the start of the second stage of the 2014 Tour de France.

Tejay van Garderen leads Valverde in a rainy stage eight of the 2014 Tour.

Valverde leads Alberto Contador and Joaquin Rodriguez in stage fifteen of the 2014 Vuelta a España.

Stage 20 of the 2014 Vuelta.

Valverde and Joaquin Rodriguez working out on the 2014 World Road Race Championships course.

Valverde winning the third stage of the 2015 Majorca Challenge.

2015 Tour de France stage 20: Yellow Jersey Chris Froome leads Valverde.

Before the start of 2015 Vuelta a España stage four.

Climbing in stage seven of the 2015 Vuelta.

Fighting the clock in stage seventeen of the 2015 Vuelta.

Valverde, left, with Vincenzo Nibali, Ivan Basso, Alberto Contador and Peter Sagan at the presentation of the 2016 Giro d'Italia.

Valverde wins the 2017 Tour of Murcia.

2017 Ruta del Sol stage three.

Valverde starting staege six of the 2017 Tour of the Basque Country.

Valverde wins the 2017 Fleche Wallone for the fifth time.

And here he is winning the 2017 Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

Before the start of stage five of the 2017 Critérium du Dauphiné.

Finishing 12th in stage seven of the 2017 Dauphiné

Valverde with Miguel Indurain at the 2018 GP Miguel Indurain.

Waiting to start the 2018 Amstel Gold Race.

A foggy day at the 2018 Route d'Occitanie's third stage.

Descending the Aubisque in stage 19 of the 2018 Tour de France.

Valverde wins the Elite men's World Road Championships in 2018.

And so the Rainbow Jersey is his.

Starting the 2018 Milano-Torino in his recently acquired rainbow jersey.

Winning the third stage of the 2019 UAE Tour.

Starting 2019 Milano-Sanremo with 2018 winner Vincenzo Nibali in front of Milan's Castell Sforzesco.

2019 Tour of Flanders: Valverde is on the Paterberg ascent.

A cool morning for the start of the 2019 Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

2019 Tour de France, stage fifteen.

2019 Vuelta a España, stage seven. He won that stage.

2019 Vuelta stage thirteen.

Signing in to the start of the 2019 Il Lombardia.

Winning second place in the 2019 Il Lombardia. Bauke Mollema won the race, finishing sixteen seconds ahead of this chasing trio of Valverde, Egan Bernal and Jakob Fuglsang.