Valverde: Nibali will be very hard to beat

With a strong ride on stage 13 in the Tour de France, finishing fourth at 50 seconds, and the dramatic disintegration of Richie Porte’s general classification chances, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) has become Vincenzo Nibali’s closest rival in the battle for the overall. But the Spaniard is not exactly optimistic about his chances of actually toppling the Italian.

Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The IndependentThe GuardianProCycling, The Express and Reuters.