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Valverde may snub Vuelta for Tour

  • By VeloNews.com
  • Published Nov. 30, 2009
  • Updated Feb. 24, 2011 at 9:30 PM UTC

Alejandro Valverde says he’s still undecided about whether he’ll defend his Vuelta a España crown in 2010.

Alejandro Valverde may have plans to stand atop a podium in France rather than Spain come 2010.

After winning his first-ever grand tour with a dominant performance on Spanish roads in September, Valverde is now hinting that the Tour de France will be his primary focus next season.

“The Tour is the race with more international prestige,” he said after riding a criterium this weekend in Jaén. “We’ll see how the season develops. I always take on a race with the maximum guarantees of success. The road always puts everything in its place, but in principle, I will go with the challenge of hoping for everything.”

Valverde, of course, is assuming that he’ll be racing at all in 2010.

There’s still the prickly question of allegations from Italian authorities that he is linked to the Operación Puerto blood doping scandal, dating back to 2006.

The Caisse d’Epargne captain won the Vuelta this year in large part due to his racing ban in Italy, which also sidelined him for the Tour because about 80km of the race crossed through Italian territory.

Both the UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency are trying to extend the two-year, Italy-only ban to the rest of the world.

Valverde’s legal team is challenging the Italians’ legal right to ban a Spanish rider, taking an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. A hearing scheduled for November was postponed.

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