Valverde at the 2015 Tour de France
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Personal information | |
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Full name | Alejandro Valverde Belmonte |
Nickname |
Balaverde (The Green Bullet) El Bala (The Bullet) El Imbatido (The Unbeaten) |
Born |
Las Lumbreras, Spain |
25 April 1980
Height | 1.77 m (5 ft 10 in) |
Weight | 61 kg (134 lb; 9.6 st) |
Team information | |
Current team | Movistar Team |
Discipline | Road |
Role | Rider |
Rider type | All-rounder |
Professional team(s) | |
2002–2004 | Kelme–Costa Blanca |
2005– | Illes Balears–Banesto |
Major wins | |
Other
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Other
Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (born 25 April 1980) is a Spanish road racing cyclist for UCI WorldTeam Movistar Team. Valverde's biggest wins have been the 2009 Vuelta a España, Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 2006, 2008 and 2015, La Flèche Wallonne (2006, 2014, 2015 and 2016), the Clásica de San Sebastián (2008 and 2014), the 2006 and 2008 UCI ProTours, and the 2014 and 2015 UCI World Tours. He has twice collected the silver medal in the UCI Road World Championships, in 2003 and 2005, as well as the bronze four times in 2006, 2012, 2013 and 2014. Valverde is rare in combining different specialities in road bicycle racing, being a strong climber, sprinter and time-trialist in his later years. After a lengthy court battle, he was suspended for two years as part of the Operación Puerto blood doping investigation, but he returned to competition in 2012 upon completion of the ban.