Alejandro Valverde is no panda
When Dan Martin won Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2013, he was chased up the final drag by a panda. It was a memorable backdrop to a race-winning, perhaps even career-defining, attack. Look at him (Dan Martin) go!…
Alejandro Valverde, La Fleche Wallonne, the Mur de Huy, etc, etc
Last year, I wrote: “La Fleche Wallonne pretty much always amounts to a hill climb after a 200km warm-up. Alejandro Valverde is still the fastest hill climber, just as he was last year and the…
Robert Gesink has a new modus operandi
Without wishing to sound too wilfully contradictory, Robert Gesink is an interesting rider for how boring he is. A man who has finished fourth and sixth in the Tour de France and who has three…
Alejandro Valverde is still in the Giro d’Italia
Alejandro doesn’t always sprint for fourth place. Sometimes there aren’t three riders ahead of him and he has to settle for sprinting for the win. That’s what happened at the end of a short but…
A reason to warm to Alejandro Valverde
“There were some unexpected moves by Movistar,” said Tom Dumoulin after the stage. What he meant was there was one unexpected move by Movistar, the team, and then about a billion inexplicable attacks by Alejandro…
Alejandro Valverde can use Google StreetView
And back to second. After yesterday’s win, normal service has resumed for Peter Sagan. He didn’t seem too bothered. I guess he’s used to it by now. Alejandro Valverde was the latest person to take…
Chris Froome more than a little relieved that there wasn’t more road
The final climb of the 2015 Tour de France was really quite something. A French cyclist, Thibaut Pinot, in the lead; Chris Froome, in the yellow jersey, a few minutes back; and in between, Nairo…
Alejandro Valverde is occasionally the bride
Now that I look upon his breathtaking white dress, it suddenly seems inaccurate to call Alejandro Valverde a perennial bridesmaid. If he fulfilled the role once again at Amstel Gold, finishing second, it turned out…
Alejandro Valverde still likes La Fleche Wallonne
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking ‘did Greg Van Avermaet come second, or possibly, in light of his recent major results, third?’ The answer is no. He didn’t race. He might be back for…
Dan Martin remains upright round the final corner
Dan Martin has spent most of this season on the deck. He crashed out of the Giro on the first day, he crashed in the Tour any number of times and most memorably of all,…
