Many years ago, in a place that felt almost like a distant galaxy, José Miguel Echávarri, the man who helped uncover Miguel Induráin and Pedro Delgado, built a habit of sharing meals with the journalists who covered the Vuelta in its early days. This ritual sparked a surprising tradition that would shape how triumphs were celebrated and remembered in Spanish cycling.
In 2003, the gathering happened in a restaurant in Gijón. It gave birth to a plan to celebrate the top stage winner in a playful way. The next day, the secret meeting continued to unfold openly. Another legendary figure Echávarri had discovered in his era, José Luis Laguía, then leader of Kelme, asked how the dinner had gone. The idea was to create a club of winners, though Laguía warned it would be hard to find one. He asked if the plan would involve a child. When the answer came that it indeed might, Laguía replied with a smile that pointed straight to Alejandro Valverde as the future star.
Valverde did not sweep every stage, but he narrowly missed some and seized the two major mountain stages in the 2003 Vuelta, Envalira and La Pandera. At only 23, he already signaled that his ascent in professional cycling would not go unnoticed.
133 wins
The promise to crown Valverde became a whispered legend shared by the journalist who received the baton from Laguía at the top of Envalira in Andorra. The page bearing the name of the stage winner that day remains a mystery, and almost twenty years later there might still be doubt about who was right. The last great classic of 2022, the Giro di Lombardia, closed an era in which Valverde stood as the most decorated Spanish cyclist of all time with 133 victories. His record reflects not only a shelf of trophies but a consistency that few peers match, a rider who has spent two decades inside the top 10 in three-week races, one-week races, and one-day classics alike.
People often ask what Valverde’s secret is. The answer seems to lie in a youthful vitality that never seems to fade. His career began in 2002, when he battled established rivals, then matched his own age group, and now wrestles with a new generation of riders who could almost be his children. Oscar Pereiro, three years older and a former Tour winner, observed that even on days when others suffered, Valverde remained unusually fresh. The 2008 Tourmalet remains a memorable test, a moment when the team had to push him to the summit, and yet, after the struggle, he rebounded and stayed in contention.
A tour of the legs
Valverde’s affection for the Tour de France is well documented. He believed there was a French flame in his legs, a belief that kept him in contention for the prestige of the dead leaves classic as a Saturday finale. The tension between prioritizing the Tour and chasing classics created a narrative that was uniquely Valverde: a rider who met pain with resolve and who always found a way back to the front. If Paris had brought him a victory in 2015, or if he had worn yellow in 2008, the record might read differently, yet Valverde’s career remained one of consistent high performance across a broad spectrum of races.
It was Echávarri who signed Valverde with Kelme and later steered him toward benchmark status for Caisse d’Epargne and Movistar. The influence of that guidance helped cultivate a deep love for the Tour and for the great one-day races that defined his era.
The memory of Valverde’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège triumphs in 2006 lingers in the voice of his longtime coach. The coach recalls a moment when Valverde, fresh from victory, was told that the Murcia race would be remembered as a turning point. The rider who earned the nickname “El Unbatido” in his youth had already proven capable of seizing victory across the world’s top events, shaping cycling history with every win and every race that followed.
The era that Valverde helped inaugurate stretched from the fierce dominance of Lance Armstrong to the rise of new champions like Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel, and, in Spain, Juan Ayuso and Carlos Rodríguez. The sun may set on one era as another begins, but Valverde’s impact continues to illuminate the sport’s landscape.
38-year-old world champion
If asked to name the happiest moment of his cycling life, Valverde often returns to Innsbruck, where a late sprint saw him chase a world championship title at a celebrated 38 years of age. Romain Bardet climbed into history that day, and Valverde’s gesture of triumph—arm raised, emotion unmasked—still echoes through the alpine meadows years later. The victory forever linked the rider to the pinnacle of international cycling in the minds of fans and peers alike.
Even during the controversial suspension of 2010, Valverde stayed connected to the sport. He remained active on the bike, returning to win and to shape the memory of his career. Now retired from full-time racing, Valverde’s legacy endures as a benchmark for tenacity and consistency across two decades of professional competition.