The soul of the artist, the artists say, only has one limit, the one set by their imagination, and that is what the soul of Alejandro Valverde, who is an artist and a long-lived cyclist, seems to see, and in the Wall of Huy, his private garden, to the Almost 42 years old, who turns on Monday the 25th, he exalts himself and makes a prodigy of fantasy, curves and desires of the Fleche Walloon, the most squared classic, 200 flat kilometers, a 1,300-meter wall, a
sprint
of strongmen.
And the heart at 200. And in 300 meters, the last 300 meters of a vertical path, the path of the Chapels, the path of Calvary, better, seven chapels on the hillside, and burning candles shine, in 56 seconds of apnea, well the fans, hypnotized, forget to breathe 20 times, condense in pedal strokes, standing on the bicycle, and in the pain of the arms that pull the handlebars, everything that has been, what is, cycling, and far from he the fuss of modernity: the science of the race, the wait, the chase, the acceleration, the overtaking that is not consummated, the victory that shouts at him, come on, in which he believes, the finger that changes gear, the legs that try to accelerate more, stuck to the fence, the muscles that rebel, the woe of exhaustion, the look back, the look at the ground, defeat.
Everything.
He finishes second and the world, mouths open, applauds.
He can beat Tadej Pogacar, the cannibal, the new cycling, the irrational face, who says he believed in everything until the light went out 300 meters from the end, and he still doesn't understand the Huy wall, a climb that, says the new Merckx always pushes you beyond your means.
He can take Julian Alaphilippe, the rainbow man, his heir, who, when he's finished, sighs and says, what a relief this is over, and laughs and says he's just gotten not as far as his imagination led him but only as far as the legs have allowed.
Can Valverde, the king of Huy, 16 Flechas disputed, five wins (more than anyone in history), three second places, one third, with the favorites, with everyone, but, and cycling is guided more than anything by a kind of poetic justice, of hope rewarded, of wishes fulfilled, he cannot overcome a tenacious and veteran Belgian who finally wins his obsession at the Wall, at the eighth attempt.
His name is Dylan Teuns.
He is a specialist in impossible walls.
He has been able twice with the Planche des Belles Filles in the Tour, he has shone on the Balcón de Bizkaia in the Vuelta.
He has won the stage of the Alps that gave Pogacar the Tour of 21. He has just turned 30 years old.
Five years ago, he was already on the verge of winning Huy.
He moved the same.
And Valverde also persecuted him.
Then, the Murcian overtook him, and also the Irishman Dan Martin.
It was then, 2017, Valverde's last victory in the race to which he will never return.
“Dylan has started very well, very continuous;
It may have been the fastest climb in history, or at least the ones I've had on the Flecha Wallona” says the man from Murcia.
"There are days when you have the feeling that you could have suffered a little more to achieve victory, but today I gave everything."
300 meters from the top, the slope softens, and it is no longer the impossible 19% slope in which Enric Mas, accelerating until he could no longer, has taken his friend Valverde to the place he loves, in front of everyone, to the place where you can watch and decide, and feel like a general with the battlefield at your feet.
There, at 13%, everyone recovers their pulse, and Valverde feints, and his movement is the signal that Teuns and Vlasov, the patient Russian, expect to move, and his movement is what Valverde expects, who gets on the wheel and waits .
At 200 meters it accelerates more Teuns.
With Vlasov just trying not to lose his wheel, Valverde resists.
He waits for the 150 meter sign.
9% slope.
And there he attacks, attacks, wins inch by inch.
He can, he can.
His front wheel is centimeters away from overtaking the Belgian's.
The fans believe.
He needs a prodigy.
The fans yell at him: your limit is not your imagination but ours, which is unlimited, unfathomable.
Absolute.
His limit, if not the law of aging, is the law of gravity which he defies, which he has defeated so many times.
In the end, it's the end, she pushes him against the saddle, knocks him down.
And he speaks.
“It is a second that is worth a victory.
It gives a lot of happiness.
In five days I will turn 42, it was the last Arrow… ”, says Valverde, who retired sick from his last competition, the Volta a Catalunya, the last week of March.
“I wanted to check his fitness, I saw that at home he was fine, but in competition it's something else.
Coming here, finishing well, suffering but finishing well, gives me a lot of hope for Liège on Sunday”.
His limit, if not the law of aging, is the law of gravity which he defies, which he has defeated so many times.
In the end, it's the end, he pushes him against the saddle, knocks him down.
And he speaks.
“It is a second that is worth a victory.
It gives a lot of happiness.
In five days I will turn 42, it was the last Arrow… ”, says Valverde, who retired sick from his last competition, the Volta a Catalunya, the last week of March.
“I wanted to check his fitness, I saw that at home he was fine, but in competition it's something else.
Coming here, finishing well, suffering but finishing well, gives me a lot of hope for Liège on Sunday”.
His limit, if not the law of aging, is the law of gravity which he defies, which he has defeated so many times.
In the end, it's the end, he pushes him against the saddle, knocks him down.
And he speaks.
“It is a second that is worth a victory.
It gives a lot of happiness.
In five days I will turn 42, it was the last Arrow… ”, says Valverde, who retired sick from his last competition, the Volta a Catalunya, the last week of March.
“I wanted to check his fitness, I saw that at home he was fine, but in competition it's something else.
Coming here, finishing well, suffering but finishing well, gives me a lot of hope for Liège on Sunday”.
“It is a second that is worth a victory.
It gives a lot of happiness.
In five days I will turn 42, it was the last Arrow… ”, says Valverde, who retired sick from his last competition, the Volta a Catalunya, the last week of March.
“I wanted to check his fitness, I saw that at home he was fine, but in competition it's something else.
Coming here, finishing well, suffering but finishing well, gives me a lot of hope for Liège on Sunday”.
“It is a second that is worth a victory.
It gives a lot of happiness.
In five days I will turn 42, it was the last Arrow… ”, says Valverde, who retired sick from his last competition, the Volta a Catalunya, the last week of March.
“I wanted to check his fitness, I saw that at home he was fine, but in competition it's something else.
Coming here, finishing well, suffering but finishing well, gives me a lot of hope for Liège on Sunday”.
On Sunday, in Liège, the 108th edition of the oldest race, Valverde, the ancient cyclist, awaits Merckx, the cannibal who set all the limits of cycling.
He won the Dean five times.
Valverde, four.
“The challenge doesn't scare me, as difficult as it may seem,” he says.
"What I don't want is for it to rain."
The imagination never runs out.
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