Alejandro Valverde, on Wednesday on the podium of the Flecha Wallona.JASPER JACOBS (AFP)
Sunday, April 24, 108th edition of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège (15.10, Teledeporte), the cycling monument that was first run in 1892 and that is why it is called La Deana, and Alejandro has become great in it Valverde, who turns 42 on Monday the 25th, the oldest in the squad, the dean.
It will be his 16th Liège, the race he has won four times, only one less than Eddy Merckx, the one who has won the most, and in which he has finished in the top four on nine occasions.
It will also be the last Liège for Valverde, who after finishing second on Wednesday in the Flecha Wallona feels his full soul, and feels the tingling of whoever thinks he can win.
"My shares have risen more than I expected," says the Murcian from Belgium in a telephone interview.
No one has won the Liège in three different decades.
If he succeeds, Valverde,
already winner in 2006, 2008, 2015 and 2017, it would be the first.
“But I'm not motivated by the fact that he can make history.
I continue in cycling because of the way I am, because I know that I still have the body to be able to opt for victories, and give me victories, personally, and for the team”.
Ask.
On Wednesday she was 100 meters away from winning the Arrow…
Response.
The climb was very fast.
When Teuns started I took the wheel well, and I say, nothing, I have the change of pace to pass him.
I tried to pass it, and nothing.
We stayed there and I passed him, he passed me, I passed him, he passed me, I passed him, he passed me, and nothing... The lactic acid was able to me, I got a pain in my arms, legs, incredible head and... I looked back, I saw that he was doing second and, nothing, I had to lift my foot.
Q.
But it ended in front of Pogacar, of Alaphilippe... The monsters folded behind.
R.
The truth is that yes.
Removing Roglic were all those who can win this race and there I was, fighting until the last 50 meters to win it.
I am happy.
This means that I am there again.
P.
It's there and Liège arrives...
R.
And here they don't put rain... On that side we are going to be lucky, that it continues accompanying.
P.
In Liège, Pogacar, Alaphilippe, Gaudu and you arrived last year, in this order.
And neither Pogacar nor Gaudu will be this...
R.
And Roglic won't be there either, eh?
Q.
Your shares have gone up.
Last December, when talking about his goals in his last year in racing, he said that one of them, and he talked about it like someone talking about his dreams, was to win his fifth Liege to match Eddy Merckx.
Did he think then that he would be like this, among the great favorites, on the eve of the race?
R.
Yes, it is true that my shares have risen more than I expected too.
Man, my start to the season has been very good, and I felt very good at Strade Bianche [second after Pogacar], but, well, after coming from Catalonia, being at home training, and I have trained hard, and arriving here and doing second in Flecha gives me a lot of confidence for this Sunday... And if, on top of that, the weather is going to be good, I'm even more confident, although we've been watching it today and after La Redoute [La Fortificación] and before the Halcones [La Roche aux Faucons, last ascent, 12 kilometers from Liège] they have removed an elevation [Des Forges, Las Fraguas] that we climbed the other day in Flecha, and it was a fairly important obstacle in order to do damage.
By removing it, in that the race is still very hard, I think that this, the race,
P.
And you are more than waiting a little more?
R.
That, to wait a bit more.
In other words, we will have to be more attentive soon and, then, okay, Roglic does not come, but Van Aert enters his team, who makes his first Liège and is a candidate to win.
Q.
But he doesn't know the race, it's new territory for him...
R.
It is the same, it is a territory that suits him.
As the arrival is, it's perfect for him... He's going to be a very tough rival.
If the Jumbo have a bit of control in the race, for me it will be the top favourite.
P.
With Van Aert, a generational duel will be reproduced again, a constant in his career, in which he has shared the podium and defeated runners born in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s... And of all with whom he has shared the podium in the eight times he has climbed, only survives, and very strong, Kwiatkowski, born in 1990...
R.
And now Pogacar and Van Aert play, almost from 2000. And I feel like them, at their level.
Analyzing the times of the climb to the Huy wall, I'm like when I did my best time there.
That means that I feel good, and that this year the air was against practically the entire climb.
Q.
That means you have spark, power, and the stamina that's supposed to come with age, 42 years minus a day, so you'd think a 160-mile, nine-climb, one-collar race is ideal for you...
R.
Yes, yes... For me, the longer and lasts, if I'm fine, the better.
The other day, at Flecha, as the 11 levels progressed, in the final part is when I felt better, and with better sensations.
I am left with that feeling of knowing that I finished well despite that leg pain that came with an agonizing effort, 100%...
P.
On Friday, in the Tour of the Alps Pinot and Bardet were resurrected, the Frenchmen of the 90s who fought for the podium of the Tour with you and Nairo in the Froome years.
Was it a sign that the new ones are not unattainable, that they have not conquered all of cycling?
Hope?
A.
Of course we old people can still do a lot of damage.
We are still there.
It is true that we have had to suffer perhaps a year, two years of transition, because now the race is different, but when we have found the trick to training and everything, we are back at the front.
Q.
Do you train with a power meter now, measuring watts?
A.
Yes... What I don't train with is pulse [setting thresholds based on heart rate]... I only train with watts now...
P.
And following the new trends of fewer kilometers and more intense, more series, more quality, less quantity?
A.
I have practically always been like this.
I think part of my success is that.
I have never been one to do weeks of 30, 32, 28 hours... I have always been of weeks between 20 and 25 at the most, and speed, speed, my series, my such, my sensations, and I think that is what He has made it so far with a good level.
P.
We could say, then, that the training of watts basically traces the one you always had of sensations... And knowing each other well, interpreting the sensations, it has always been said that it is the mark of champions...
A.
Exactly.
This is very important.
P.
And in such a tough stage of the Tour of the Alps, a 19-year-old boy, Igor Arrieta, has been fourth... The youngsters continue to grow fast.
R.
That kid is wonderful.
Igor has an impressive engine.
I already told his father [José Luis, director of Valverde at Movistar for 10 years] when I saw him in Mallorca, and he is proving it...
P.
It was cold like the stage of the last Tour in which Pogacar destroyed the crowd, Teuns won and you said that you had been about to get off because in your life you had suffered so much on a bicycle due to the cold and the rain ...
A.
Yes, yes, yes, I suffered, my goodness, I suffered a lot...
P.
And Teuns, the same one you beat five years ago in the Flecha, reappears and beats you this year... So many years in cycling don't give you the feeling of living a circular life, of always returning to the same people, the same places?
R.
Yes, yes, I feel that way.
A circle.
Yes, it is true that I am going to turn 42 on Monday, but when it comes to enjoying myself, my head is still as it was before.
It is true that when the conditions are very bad, with rain and everything, I do think about it a lot more and that is when it is worst, but in normal conditions of being able to act normally, I am still there and enjoying myself and being 100 percent hundred...
P.
Does it motivate you to continue thinking that you are making history, so strong at 42?
R.
No... That's why, no.
I think it's because of my way of being, knowing that I still have the body to be able to win, and give me personal wins and the team.
Therefore, the idea to continue until now.
And also for the public.
After two years of pandemic, with few people on the roads, this is already being more normal and it is appreciated.
P.
When he took you to his first Liège, in 2005, José Miguel Echávarri explained that this was his favorite monument, that it was the one that Indurain was best suited for, with which he could never win it, and that it was your turn to inherit the responsibility... And you have run 15 Lièges, and you have four victories, four more podiums, a fourth place... The only Spaniard who has won the Dean.
R.
It is a career that I like a lot and that suits me very well...
P.
It is a reciprocated love, because in Lombardy, 10 participations and three times second, you do not find correspondence...
A.
Yes... That's right.
I was very close to winning, but I couldn't...
P.
Lombardy is run in October, after the Vuelta, the race in which he had announced that he would say goodbye to cycling.
Will he continue to try to win it in his 11th start?
R.
I want to get there, I want to get to the end.
I want it to be a normal season, as usual...
P.
Let's imagine that you win the Vuelta or get on the podium, and that in Lombardy you are also on top.
Wouldn't it then be harder to hang up the bike?
Won't you regret looking so strong?
R.
No, no... In the end I retire with a feeling of saying I retire because I want to, but my level is still there to win.
I'm left with that feeling, not that of having been dragged, of just suffering on the bike without compensation, of suffering... I suffer, but happy to know that I'm fighting to win.
I suffer to win, not to survive.
When you go back and lose 15 minutes you suffer much more than you suffer to win.
It has nothing to do with it.
P.
Armstrong got off the bike from the podium of his seventh Tour and after three years he returned to cycling... Of course, going back at 45...
R.
Hahaha... That would be impossible, yes, impossible.
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