Never like now Alejandro Valverde is truly "El Imbatido", after the extraordinary victory at the World Championship in Innsbruck, a test for tough, authentic "iron men" on the pedals, which rewarded a champion who had touched the rainbow jersey six times , always finishing on the podium, twice second in 2003 – then just twenty-three years old behind his compatriot Igor Astarloa – and in 2005 beaten by Tom Boonen, four times third (2006, 2012, 2013 and 2014).
An infinite career, that of Valverde, with many victories but also strong disappointments, from which the new world champion has always been able to recover, even from the doping scandal that saw him involved in the "Operacion Puerto" which exploded on the eve of the 2006 Tour. Record holder and king of the Ardennes with five victories in the Freccia Wallona and four successes in the Liège-Bastogne-Liege, a triumph in the Vuelta (2009), also on the podiums in the Giro and Tour, Valverde, born on 25 April 1980, he is the second oldest world champion in the history of cycling, preceded by a handful of months by the Dutchman Joop Zoetemelk, winner in 1985, but overtaking Stan Ockers (winner in Frascati in 35) and Mario Cipollini in the world champion club of the over 1955s , world champion in 2002.
Tears of emotion and joy, Valverde never ceases to amaze: in Innsbruck he won big by beating Romain Bardet, the Canadian Michael Woods and Tom Dumoulin in the sprint, the only ones who were able to stand up to him in the grueling final that he crumbled on the wall Final of Gramart the resistance of Julian Alaphilippe, his favorite of the race, and of Thibaut Pinot, eighth and ninth at the finish line 43” behind the winner.
Other big names had been out of the race for some time, won by a track that sapped their energies, lap after lap: the first to jump was the three-time defending champion Peter Sagan, who, given the altitude, decided halfway through the race to postpone the attempt to make a historic championship poker to the next world championship on the flat Yorkshire circuit, but the Slovak, although soon out of the race, was the protagonist of a gesture that will go down in the history of the world championships on the stage of the awards ceremony to personally deliver the medal gold to Valverde, his successor.
On the last ascent of Iglis it was the turn of Kwiatkwoski and Simon Yayes to give up. A crash 61 km from the finish had compromised the world championship of Miguel Angel Lopez and Primoz Roglic. Vincenzo Nibali also gave way in the finale, who had given positive signals up to the last lap with the blue team taking the reins of the race by chasing the last two survivors of a flight of semi-unknowns that began in the early morning.
The Shark, who unfortunately paid for a not yet perfect condition after the bad crash in the Tour de France, finished 49th more than six minutes behind Valverde. The only Italian to enter the top ten was Gianni Moscon, who finished fifth 13” behind Valverde. Among the big names, the usual lackluster race of Nairo Quintana who, despite being on a course for condors, never showed up, contenting himself with finishing first of a disappointing Colombian team but only fifteenth at 1'21” from the quartet of the first.
On the contrary Tom Dumoulin was splendid and irreducible in the run-up after the wall of Gramart, in the dive on Innsbruck, first managing to pass Moscon and then catch Valverde, Bardet and Woods in the last km: a great performance that of the Dutchman who, after two second places in the Giro and the Tour, in this world championship he also participated in the two time trials, finishing second behind Rohan Dennis and in the team trial with his Sunweb.
