"It’s as if we’ve gone through the same village seven times" - Alejandro Valverde blasts Vuelta organizers over 'dangerous' route

The opening three stages of the Vuelta a Espana saw the peloton in the Netherlands, with pan-flat days that gave the sprinters opportunities to thrive, but had the climbers and GC riders under stress as they looked to stay upright.

Valverde told reporters after yesterday's stage that "it’d be better I have a shower before I start talking" when asked about the third stage of the race, pointing towards the dangerous route in the opinion of the veteran who's racing his final Vuelta. On stage two he crashed towards the end of the day, but kept his position in the overall classification as it was inside the final three kilometers. On stage three he stayed upright, but had a lot of criticism towards the organizers.

“We’ve had a lot of scares in general, because, well, the route… if I say what I think now, better I say nothing. Fine, we’ve got through it, and now we’re going to Spain, so bien," he said. Reporters on sight pushed the question further to Valverde to understand better the context, taking into account that there were no mass crashes as is sometimes the case on the opening days of a Grand Tour.

”The route? The route? Hey, come on, don’t fuck with me. Nope, I’m not doing to say anything because I’m going to get hot under the collar. Bien, that’s it... No, man, these kinds of circuits just can’t be. It’s as if we’ve gone through the same village seven times. I don’t think there were any more villages out there that we could have gone through," he detailed.

With the convoy travelling back to Spain on this first rest day of the race, the peloton will see less technical roads away from highly dense Dutch plains, one which will also see the first stages that suit the veteran well.

Valverde praised his team for the work on the third day: "Because we [the team] controlled things incredibly well... With everything I’ve said now, I’ve said more than enough.”