"The internal competition is very strong" - Attila Valter unsure if he will ride Grand Tour in 2023

One of the new faces at Jumbo-Visma for 2023, Attila Valter joined from Groupama - FDJ with big hopes of helping the team and proving himself at the Grand Tours although it no longer seems that will be the case.

"Initially it was the intention that I would do the Giro d'Italia. I've ridden it three times already," Valter, who's career-best performance at the Giro came in 2021 when he finished 14th in the general classification, told WielerFlits. "It should be clear that Jumbo-Visma is going for the overall victory in the Giro. They therefore want a team that gives 100%. The team management just didn't want to do that with me. At 24 years old, they think I'm still much too young to always be submissive. I therefore get my own opportunities in other races.”

"If you want to fully prepare yourself for that, you should be on altitude training during the classics. This is a better way for my personal development," he continues. "But I still love the grand tours. Although the internal competition is very strong, I hope to ride the Vuelta a España after the summer.”

So with three weeks of his calendar now freed up, which races are in the sights of the Hungarian national road race champion? "The Ardennes classics, where we start without a leader and I have a free role,” Valter says. "My values ​​are not close to those of Primož and Jonas. But it's not impossible that I'll ever get it. Jumbo-Visma sees that in me. It is now up to me to enforce opportunities. That is possible within this team. The goal this year is mainly to discover where my strength now lies: in the grand tours, or in the classics?"