Alejandro Valverde waits to get the training ride started(Image credit: Movistar)
Alejandro Valverde gets ready for a training ride with his teammates(Image credit: Movistar)
Alejandro Valverde greets the press before the ride(Image credit: Movistar)
The Movistar team had a visitor at the Vuelta a Espana, with Alejandro Valverde joining the remaining riders for a training ride on the race's first rest day. Valverde greeted the press on Monday morning outside the team hotel in Alicante before heading out on the ride.
"I started to ride the bike before I could walk," Valverde said ahead of the ride, according to Spanish publication AS. "The first month was the worst, later I worked a lot.
"I am not completely recovered, evidently, and I have a strange sensation in the leg, but I feel good."
Valverde is still on the path to recovery following his hefty crash on the opening stage of the Tour de France last month. The Spaniard hit the ground in a slippery corner during the time trial and collided with a barrier, breaking his kneecap. He underwent surgery and remained in Germany for several days before travelling home.
On his soon to be teammate Mikel Landa, Valverde said: "I thought he was a revelation and that he had demonstrated that. I don't think that there are not going to be any problems in the team. There is a calendar for everyone."
Valverde was expected to be out for the rest of the season but has been training for the past week and has expressed his interest in racing at the Tour de Guangxi in October.
Movistar is riding the Vuelta a Espana without a general classification leader, as Valverde is out with injury and Nairo Quintana has already raced two Grand Tours this season. They lost Carlos Betancur to a big crash on stage 7, but have had Marc Soler in the breakaway in the past couple of stages.
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