Alejandro Valverde and maglia rosa Andrey Amador (Movistar) stage 14 at the Giro d'Italia
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in a chase group(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) trying to chase on(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) before the race kicked into action(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) with teammate and maglia rosa Andrey Rosa on his wheel before the fireworks(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) waits for the start of stage 14
Movistar's Alejandro Valverde and Andrey Amador refused to speak to the media after losing time during the testing Dolomite stage 14 to Corvara at the Giro d'Italia. They later tried to put a positive spin on their day despite losing three minutes to stage winner Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) and new race leader Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo).
Movistar's chance of overall victory in the Giro d'Italia were left scattered on the slopes of the Passo Valparola when first Amador and then Valverde were unable to hold the pace. When Nibali exploded the front group, Valverde failed to move and then had nobody to help him chase as the rest of the overall contenders rode away from him. Valverde is fourth overall but a significant 3:06 down on Kruijswijk and 2:25 down on Nibali.
"It was a hard day, it was a shock," Spanish radio station Onda Cero reported Valverde as saying from his hotel.
"Both Andrey and I did the best we could and so we have to be happy. We're no less motivated than before. We didn't have a good or bad day, we were just average. There's still a lot of racing to come and chances to shake things up, even if it's going to be complicated. We're three minutes back now and so we can only give it everything."
Valverde admitted that he suffered because of the altitude. He cracked as the climb headed up to 2000m for a sixth time during the stage.
"What has affected me most has been the altitude, we have always been around 2000 metres and I think that is what has hurt me and weakened me. That's when I was in trouble. I had no strength to respond but then later I picked up my pace. We have recovered a bit and we were even about to catch Uran and closed the gap so what to Zakarin and Majka."
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Valverde took heart from the fact that even Nibali was unable to stay Chaves and Kruijswijk, and had to fight to limit his losses.
"Nibali was the one that caused everything but Chaves and Kruijswijk were better than him today. Much remains of the Giro and will have to try to do something later in the race. We'll see what happens."
He is hoping he can bounce back in Sunday's 10.8km time trial from Castelrotto Alpe di Siusi.
"It's a pretty demanding time trial and I think I'll do well," he said.
Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
