Barring unlikely last-minute changes of opinion, Alejandro Valverde is set to become Spain’s new national team coach in their quest to claim their first gold medal since Valverde himself took the rainbow jersey back in 2018 in Innsbruck, Austria.
After retiring in 2022, Valverde has remained working with Movistar, his former team, and he will likely continue in his role as team ambassador and gravel racer with the same squad.
Valverde is on the point of signing a four-year deal with the Spanish Federation and will also sign a deal with Movistar for one year, according to MARCA.
The 42-year-old former racer succeeds Pascual Momparler, the Spanish national coach since 2018. His appointment also all but overlaps with the recent resignation of longstanding Spanish National Federation president José Luis López Cerron, who is succeeded by José Vicioso.
“It’s a very inspiring new chapter for me,” Valverde told MARCA. “I’ve been after this for a while.
“We’ve got four years ahead of us to do the job well. We’ve got some great new names coming up, like [Javier] Romo who’s just won in Australia. Let’s see what happens.”
Valverde brushed off the idea that working for a particular team and as the national trainer could constitute a conflict of interests. “Whether I continued with them or not, Movistar will always be my team,” he affirmed.
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“There’s always going to be criticism, you can’t always please everyone. This doesn’t mean there will be more Movistar riders. There have always been a lot of Movistar riders because it’s the only WorldTour team Spain has and normally it has the best.”
“I’m not saying all the best, but some of them. In other teams, there are good riders as well. We’ll send the ones [from Movistar] that we have to, be it one or three.””
Valverde’s first mission as Spanish trainer will be to fly to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, to assess the World’s route, prior to heading to ongoing team training camps for the U23 and Junior squads.
Valverde’s selection hit moments of controversy when it emerged that Oscar Freire, a three-times World Champion, had also reportedly been offered the position, only for it finally to go to Valverde. However, once the situation had been cleared up, Freire insisted that he had no issue with the former racer regarding his selection for the post.
“I’m not against Valverde,” Freire told El Mundo Deportivo a few months back. “I get on well with him. I’m pleased he’s the coach and while it’s a blow for me, it’s not the end of the world by any means.”
MARCA also spoke to former Spanish champions Miguel Indurain and Alberto Contador, both of them backed the idea of Valverde becoming national trainer.
“But of course, each year things move on because cycling is changing and he’ll have to adapt to that,” Indurain warned.
“They don’t use radios right now, so [in races] he’ll simply be driving the car like a chauffeur, and so I don’t know how he’ll organise races given how jumpy he can be and how he likes to do things. But I’m sure he’ll do a great job.”