Alejandro Valverde speaks

On the eve of the start of the Tour de France, Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) held a press conference in Strasbourg. In the absence of a few big favourites, Valverde is now very much in the running for the overall, even if his name has tenuously been linked to the Operacion Puerto affair, but without sufficient evidence to cause his team to remove him from the race.

"First of all I want to do well in the general classification," he explained of his ambitions. "I don't know if I will finish fifth, fourth, third or second, but I want to do well. And of course I also would like to win a stage. I am convinced my second Tour will be a nice one and most of all a very important one."

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