VUELTA a España winner Alejandro Valverde plans to retire when he hits 40, but will still carry on training and competing at a much lower level.
The Team Movístar cyclist, top in the UCI World Ranking and Road World Champion this year, will hit the fifth decade on April 25, 2021, but until then believes he still has a couple of seasons in top-flight competition left in him.
“Right now I'm enjoying it and, when I give up professional cycling, I'll continue training but will reduce the level and intensity of competition,” says the rider from Puerto Lumbreras (Murcia).
“I like the suffering of it. I like getting home and saying, I really deserve a good meal and a rest now,” Valverde admits.
He was inevitably asked during the national radio programme in which he announced his future retirement why Team Movístar had not opted to put the three leaders – Nairo Quintana, Mikel Landa and Valverde himself – together in next year's Grand Tours.
“I'm not sure whether it'd be any better – we'll see; in the Tour de France we didn't give our best, although there was never any problem between the three of us, and our physical conditions had never been better,” Valverde admitted.
Valverde, 38, has won four stages of the Tour de France since turning professional in 2002, along with one in the Giro d'Italia and 11 in the Vuelta a España, which he won altogether in 2009.
He is one of the few cyclists in history to have made it to the podium in all all three.
Valverde won this year's Golden Bicycle (Vélo d'Or) award for best cyclist of the year – the two-wheeled version of football's Ballon d'Or – topped the UCI World Tour standings in 2006, 2008, 2014 and 2015, has competed in four Olympic games (London, Rio de Janeiro, Peking and Athens) and has the highest number of Vuelta a España top 10 placings in history, all of which has earnt him a place at number 22 in the Cycling Hall of Fame.
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