 Alejandro Valverde Interview By Thomas Valentinsen Sep 5, 2008 - 5:24:37 AM We talk to Alejandro Valverde on the day first Vuelta rest day - the day before the first stage in the Pyrenees.
We've already reched the first Vuelta rest day. How do you plan you spend it? The first part of the Vuelta has not been easy with hard stages and also because of the heat we met in the southern part of Spain. This rest day is perfect for everyone in order to allow us to relax a little bit. We will ride our bikes for one hour and half in order to maintain the rhythm, but for the remainder this will be a very quiet day. I was a little bit scared because I hit my left ankle yesterday in the crash but fortunately this morning the pain had completely disappeared." How do you view your own performance in the first week of the 2008 Vuelta a Espana? Much better than I thought starting from Granada for sure. My intention was to fight for stage wins and during these six days I already won one, which also allowed me to wear the golden jersey. Yesterday I was the third on the line in Toledo and I am still the third overall after having done a long time trial which was my weakest point especially after my bad results in the individual time trial raced in the Tour (de France). I lost a part of my trust in my time trial abilities, but after my good result in Ciudad Real I am happy.
You must be happy. You said that you came to the 2008 Vuelta to take stage wins but partly thanks to this time trial and partly thanks to the time bonuses, you are now the third overall the day before the first mountain stage. Will you continue in the same fashion? It is true that I am in a very good position and that the time bonuses play a very important role in this Vuelta. Until now all of that is in my favor and if I feel well in the mountains, I will not ignore that feeling. Nevertheless, that does not change anything in regards to the fact that I will continue with the same idea, which is to fight for stage wins because two weeks are left to race and I do not know till which point my body will resist (the pressure). If it was a ten day race, it would not be a problem, but with so many stages, we will see what happens. It will depend on how I feel when leaving the Pyrenees. From there on, I will see whether I can start thinking about the general classification. How do you see the other favorites? Contador is very good, and also Sastre which hides a little bit as usual, but at the end you always see him with the best. We also have to take into account riders like Antón, Mosquera and of course Leipheimer who is very strong as he showed it in the time trial of Ciudad Real. For the moment, even if Alberto remains the team leader, he is ahead in the classification and that is an additional advantage for Team Astana.
Tomorrow will be the first stage in the Pyrenees and the stage has a mountain top finish. What are your expectations? It is a very long stage and bad weather is expected. As a consequence of this I think that it will be a very hard stage and that it will be necessary to save some energy for the final part because there could be important gaps at the end. It will be a very dangerous day also because as soon as a leader will show a sign of weakness, the others will attack him at once. 
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