Alejandro Valverde won today in Madrid the 64th edition of the Tour of Spain and won his first three weeks major tour. Samuel Sánchez and Cadel Evans climbed also on the podium.

“Those three weeks have been very hard but all the efforts and all the sacrifices I did were really the worthwhile”.

“The day I put on my first yellow jersey after the stage of Xorret de Catí, to climb on the podium was a great moment of emotion. From then on my dream was each day closer. I therefore never stop fighting and concentrating, not even for a while”.

“To cross the finishing line in Madrid with this jersey on the shoulders and know that this Vuelta is now really mine is an emotion that is impossible to describe”.

“I learned a lot from the errors I made in the past but now I showed that I am a rider able to win three weeks major tours. In the future I will fight to try and win another one”.
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Alejandro Valverde, who took place seven of the last but one stage of the 64th edition of the Tour of Spain, an individual time trial of 27,8 kilometers which took place in the neighborhood of Toledo, should win tomorrow his first three weeks major tour.
Alejandro is 55” ahead of Samuel Sánchez and 1’32’ ahead of Cadel Evans.

“This will be the victory I still missed. I knew that I had the capacity to win such a race but many other elements are important too to reach it. This year I have also been lucky from the very first to the last day, I could reckon on a very strong team and from a personal point of view I have been able to concentrate myself on the race in a way I was not able before”.

“To win the Vuelta is really a liberation because it shows that I am able to finish on the podium of the Tour de France too and why not win the French race some day. It will not be easy but I will try to do it in the future”.
 
“This Vuelta has been a really hard one, with very strong rivals and to win it I decided to change my way of racing the way I already did it in the Dauphiné Libéré and the Tour of Burgos.  I decided not to spend energy to try and win stages but to concentrate only on the general classification. Sometimes it has not been easy but the sacrifice was worthwhile and now all I want to do is to taste this victory which is so important in my sporting career”.
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Alejandro Valverde finished the second on the line of La Granja behind Juanjo Cobo, who won the 19th stage of the Tour of Spain in solitary. Thanks to the time bonuses and the time he won on the finishing line, Alejandro increased the gap in the classification general on the eve of the time trial that will take place tomorrow in Toledo. Samuel Sanchez is now the second at 1’26”.

“It is too early yet to celebrate because one very important stage is left to race but if I yesterday told that 70% of the job was done today I can say that only 10% are left”.

“We started the day under the sun but once it started raining the weather turned absolutely terrible. Nevertheless today like every other day in the Vuelta,  I have been very attentive despite of the fact that I was rather nervous and I believe this is due to maturity and also to what I learned from the mistakes I made in the past”.

“Just like everybody expected, my rivals tried to attack me climbing and doing down but I had not the least intention to give anybody such a possibility”.
 
“On the contrary I am the one who gained time, thanks to the time bonuses I won in the intermediate sprint and at the finish. Tomorrow every second will be important and I did not want to lose the opportunity to increase the gap”.

“My Caisse d’Epargne team-mates were just great today like every other day of this Vuelta.  Tomorrow it will be an individual effort and I hope that the golden jersey will be mine for good”.
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Alejandro Valverde finished the 20th of the 18th stage of the Tour of Spain which took place today between Talavera de la Reina and Ávila with 165 kilometers to go and with a very bad weather.

There are no changes in the general classification and Alejandro is still first overall, 31” ahead of Robert Gesink and 1’10” ahead of Samuel Sánchez.

“The stage started very fast also today and there was again a lot of tension and many nervous riders”.

“The course was not easy at all, with a difference of height of 1400 meters and favorable for breakaways. There was no rider who was dangerous for the general classification in the break so that we let them go and just control the bunch”.

“The most difficult today was to resist the cold weather: 8°C at the top of the 1st category alto de Mijares while the average temperature during the day was 12°C. We can say that we went through all the possible kinds of weather during this Vuelta”.
 
“Tomorrow is the last mountain stage. My rivals will for sure try to take advantage of his last opportunity to attack me and I will watch all my rivals which are among the first six of the general ranking because all of them are still dangerous”.

“I will be very confident at the start, supported by a great team and very motivated by the idea of winning my first major tour”.
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Alejandro Valverde was the 30th to cross the finishing line in Talavera de la Reina where the 17th stage of this 64th edition of the Tour of Spain arrived this afternoon after it started from this morning from Ciudad Real.

Alejandro keeps on leading the general classification on the eve of the stage which will join Talavera de la Reina to Ávila.

“There are only four days left to the finish and what happened today shows one more time how important it is to be very attentive all the time”.

“The crash which implied Ezequiel Mosquera and Robert Gesink has been very important for the number of riders which crashed. It happened in the first part of the peloton at a time we were riding slower than the previous kilometers”.

“So that we cannot say that this stage was a quiet one. There is every day a lot of tension within the bunch. In the final the pace of the bunch was really fast because the teams of the sprinters chased to catch the breakers. We also spent five hours on the bike. Every day is every day more tired”.
 
“Now come two difficult, dangerous and important stages for the general classification. The last three days my team tried to spend the minimum of energy so that we are prepared and motivated to fight and defend the yellow jersey during the last days of this Vuelta till the end”.
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