Alejandro Valverde called time on his illustrious career at the end of the 2022 season at 42 years of age. The Spaniard is quite clearly still bitten by the cycling bug however, and regularly competes on the gravel scene to this day.
The Spaniard is currently working alongside Movistar Team at the Tour Colombia but had things gone differently, the now 43-year-old may have actually been back riding in the peloton. "I don't miss being on the stage any more, but I did at the beginning," he recalls in conversation with Eurosport. "Right now I feel like a cyclist, but not a professional cyclist. I go out to train to feel good and in case I do a gravel race, to be as decent as possible, but I've already noticed that, for example, when the peloton starts, I don't feel anything special."
When his retirement was still a fresh decision however, the lure of a return weighed heavily on Valverde's shoulders. "Last year I did, but more during the months of March and April, then as the year progressed I kept the idea of definitive retirement," he explains. "I've accepted it since last year. It's always hard to give it up, as any professional you ask recognises. Anyone who leaves the bike, like Alberto Contador or Purito Rodriguez before, has had the doubt of saying, 'I'm coming back or I'm not coming back', but the idea passes. It happened to me too."
"You can live without a bike, of course you can, but I live much better with my bike," he concludes. "However, I'm sure I'm telling you that I'd be lost without it. In the end, the body gets used to everything, and the mind too, but at the beginning I was quite lost."
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