Before anyone spotting Alejandro Valverde in a group of riders in Spanish national team kit starts a rumour that he's gone back to being a pro. In fact, it's just Valverde doing part of his job as the new national coach.
After months of negotiations, Valverde was finally officially confirmed as Spanish national coach earlier this week in a full-blown ceremony and media event in Madrid overseen by longstanding Spanish race commentator and MC Juan Mari Guajardo.
During the event, Valverde posed for photos with a broad selection of Spanish Cycling Federation coaches, paused for multiple interviews with the media and revealed his initial plans for the road team in an on-stage discussion watched by a small audience of guests.
Valverde, 44, told 'AS' afterwards that as part of his new job position, he plans to take part in training rides with the national squad. "I won't just be in the team car," he insisted.
His hands-on – or rather legs-on – approach is very much in keeping with Valverde's continuing to train for 28,000 kilometres a year following his retirement, by his reckoning only some 10,000 less than what he did as a pro. And that's not including the kilometres he racks up in his gravel and MTB riding, either.
One of cycling's longest-standing pros with a career of more than 20 years, Valverde finally hung up his road racing wheels in 2022, although multiple rumours then followed that he might try to restart his career.
Although that didn't finally happen, Valverde has continued to ride in multiple gravel events and work as an ambassador for his former Movistar team, where he has been spotted on the odd training ride with the current line-up as well. Now, the former World Champion will do the same in his new job, but in the national federation kit.
Alejandro Valverde will not be the only member of his family to get a new job at the federation. His brother Juan Francisco, who runs a U23 team with Valverde, will also form part of his back-up staff.
"It's really motivating," Valverde told AS. "I'm lucky that we have such a strong current selection of races. It [The negotiations] took a bit longer than all of us would like, but we talked it all through and it's finally happened."
"The idea is to do some training camps, I'll talk to each of the riders and we'll see what we can do. I won't just be in the car, I'll also be able to train with them."
Movistar: lots of gravel, no Whatsapp groups
As for how the negotiations about balancing his work with Movistar and the National squad went, Valverde confirmed they had been straightforward, as "my position there in Movistar is basically one of ambassador. I'm not in any Whatsapp group with them or anything like that."
"It's been my lifelong team. There won't be any suspicion about which riders get selected. I'll call whoever's best regardless of the team they're in."
During his speech in the ceremony, the president of Spain's National Sports Council made a joke about riders in the current peloton perhaps not being able to follow Valverde's wheel during training rides, which – when asked about it afterwards – Valverde capped with the line "Well I won't select them then," as well as a grin and laugh.
"They're professionals and dedicate 100% of their time to this. Me, I do around 28,000 training miles a year, plus gravel, and MTB… and when I was a pro it was 38,000. These days we have great riders and they'll all have their chance."
As the recent winner of Tirreno-Adriatico, the Trofeo Laigueglia and the Faun Ardèche, Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is currently Spanish cycling's rider to follow, and Valverde was quick to point out his versatility as a racer would make him a great candidate for "many types of World Championships."
"He can adapt to all kinds of scenarios and situations in the Worlds - short, sharp climbs, hilly courses, ones for a small group sprint," Valverde said. "He's got a winner's mentality, too."
"Whether he'll win it or not, we don't know, but he's got a Worlds in his legs."
Looking back at his own sprint against Mike Woods (Canada) and Romain Bardet (France) that led to a long-sought rainbow jersey in 2018, Valverde said, "I'd have done the same all over again. I knew I'd done a very long sprint, but I didn't want to get shut in and, if they'd tried to get ahead of me, they'd have been battling into a headwind. It worked out fine."
