‘It makes no sense’ – Adam Blythe on ‘bonkers’ rules blocking Alejandro Valverde from World Championships
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Published 04/09/2022 at 18:50 GMT
The relegation rules driving Movistar's decision to block Alejandro Valverde from travelling to Australia to race in the UCI Road Cycling World Championships "make no sense", says Adam Blythe. Movistar want Valverde to help them avoid relegation from the WorldTour, depriving Spain of one of their strongest and most experienced riders. The World Championships take place between September 18-25.
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Alejandro Valverde's inability to race at the upcoming UCI Road Cycling World Championships is the result of a "bonkers" situation, says Eurosport's Adam Blythe.
Valverde is currently not allowed to travel to Wollongong to represent Spain at the World Championships, which take place from September 18-25, due to Movistar wanting the 42-year-old to help them pick up points in their bid to avoid relegation from the WorldTour.
Twenty teams are battling for 18 spots as of next season, with Valverde’s Movistar currently in danger of being demoted, even if Israel-Premier Tech and Lotto Soudal are the two teams currently occupying the bottom two spots.
“It is bonkers,” said Blythe on Eurosport's The Breakaway. “It just makes no sense and it’s taken away, for me, from proper bike racing.
“They are putting rules in place that are not allowing Valverde to compete at his last World Championships, to go and save a team that he’s not going to ride for again.
“OK, he’s been a part of it [Movistar] for a long, long time and he doesn’t necessarily owe them anything, but they owe him more than what he owes them.”
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Juan Ayuso and Marc Soler are set to be Spain’s leaders for the men’s road race according to national coach Pascal Momparler, who lamented missing out on Valverde's experience.
“It would be nice if Valverde could take part in the World Championships alongside young riders like Ayuso and [Carlos] Rodriguez so they can learn from him,” Momparler said.
“He would love to come, he has said so but he does not have permission. The team is immersed in the fight for points. It’s the same with Alex Aranburu (also of Movistar)."
Eurosport’s Orla Chennaoui pointed out riders may be competing together at the World Championships for their countries, but may end up running into conflicted loyalties, since the world champion picks up 600 points for whichever team he rides for.
“My theory is, because it’s in Australia, it’s so much travelling involved that you miss out on a lot of racing beforehand and afterwards,” said Dan Lloyd in response.
“You may have jetlag, and don’t perform at your best once you get back to Europe. We have a whole plethora of Italian one-day races that carry a huge number of points, all of which suit Valverde down to the ground. So he’s not guaranteed to pick up the points over there.
“It’s a really good point you’ve made, I hadn’t thought about it until earlier today, but if you’ve got two riders from the same nation in the same team obviously, and both of them are from different trade teams at the bottom of the relegation zone, is one of them really going to work for the other when they might suddenly pick up 600 points if they become world champion?
“I haven’t looked at what the teams look like, whether that might be a possibility with any of the nations, but it could well be and that makes it more bizarre."
Valverde is currently racing in La Vuelta, the final Grand Tour of his career ahead of his retirement at the end of 2022.
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