April 28, 2007 – Despite not being at his best at last Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race, Alejandro Valverde is still tipped to win big in 2007, writes Nick Warren.

By all accounts, 2006 was a dream season for the Caisse d’Epargne rider. The 27 year old Spaniard won, among other things, both one-day classics Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Flèche Wallonne, the UCI ProTour, plus a stage at the Vuelta Espana, in which he also came second overall.

Picking up where he left off in 2006 Valverde has scooped up victories in March’s Tour of Valenica, a time-trial stage win plus the overall title at the five-stage Tour of Murcia, and recently he was 6th at the Amstel Gold Race and 2nd at Flèche Wallonne.

“I expected to do well because I felt well,” he says through a translator. “I did not expect to win so early in the season.”

“In fact at Valencia and Murcia I just wanted to test myself. In Murcia I wanted to see how I was doing in time-trialling and in the end I won it and the overall.”

Valverde’s knack for winning lies in the fact that he is a true all-rounder. He can sprint, climb and now time-trial with the best – a spread of abilities that not many other professional cyclists can boast.

Born in April 1980 in Las Lumbreras, Murcia, Valverde’s rise to becoming one of the big names in cycling was confirmed in 2005, when he out-sprinted Lance Armstrong to win the 10th stage of that year’s Tour de France at the 2000m-high mountain-top finish in Courcheval.

“That victory stands out the most,” Valverde says. “Defeating Armstrong himself…”

Succumbing to a knee injury he pulled out of the 2005 Tour a few days later. The following year’s Grand Boucle, for which started as a favourite, saw him crash out early on and withdraw with a broken collarbone.

Coming from a cycling family, Valverde’s talent was spotted early on. He finished second in his first race, after which he won everything he entered until leaving school.

“My father and brother were riders themselves and cycling is important for all the family.” He says. “It means a lot when his family understands how a rider’s job works and to receive their support.”

In 2002, he turned professional for the Kelme team, who he credits with helping him become a “better cyclist.” His first major results came in 2003 when he won two stages of the Vuelta and picked up silver at the 2003 Road World Championships in Hamilton, Canada.

Despite Kelme experiencing financial woes and a number of offers from other professional teams, Valverde remained with the shoe manufacturer-sponsored outfit for the 2004 season. He switched to Caisse d’Epargne in 2005 when Kelme failed to achieve a ProTour license.

“The team had financial problems at that time and therefore it was important to support them,” he says. “I tried to stay with them as long as possible but when they went to a lower category (in 2005) I came to my current team and it was the right decision.”

For this year’s Tour de France, Valverde will be joint Caisse d’Epargne leader along with Oscar Pereiro, who finished second to Floyd Landis in 2006 and may yet be credited with first following the American’s yet-to-be-heard doping case.

Often in the past “˜dual-leadership’ arrangements have ended in tears, but asked whether he can expect problems from sharing duties with Pereiro, Valverde strongly disagrees.

“It is exactly the contrary,” he says. “It is super to be in the team with Oscar because he has a lot of experience in the Tour and I’m sure will help me if I am in the lead, the same way I will help him if he is winning.”

“We have really good morale in Caisse d’Epargne. We form a great team because we are all friends and I think that friendship is very important when the time comes to work hard together in a race.”

He still doesn’t rate himself as a yellow jersey winner for this year’s Tour, instead preferring to say he is aiming for “a top five” position, but clearly Valverde’s time is now and he undoubtedly has the potential to be the next Spanish Grand Tour champion.