Alejandro Valverde has decided to skip this season\u2019s Tour of Flanders despite an impressive performance at Dwars Door Vlaanderen which took place yesterday, March 28.<\/p>\n
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Movistar\u2019s rider says that he prefers to play a supporting role at this year\u2019s Tour de France instead. Valverde confirmed that he has decided to stick to his original schedule and race the one-day Grand Prix Miguel Indurain event on Saturday.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe have been evaluating it, and in the end, I won\u2019t race the Tour of Flanders,\u201d he told the radio programme. \u201cWe will go to Spain and on Saturday I will be in the Grand Prix Miguel Indurain. Flanders is a really important, beautiful race, but we decided to return home and it wasn\u2019t to be,\u201d Valverde said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI would like to race, but I have taken a lot from my body with continuous, really hard, racing. Indurain is a hard race, but not like Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n
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This week, Movistar\u2019s Valverde was in Belgium along with teammate Nairo Quintana. They rode on Wednesday\u2019s Dwars door Vlaanderen event as the perfect test ahead of the Tour de France in July.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI am tired and still cold. They were 180 kilometers where it was raining all the time and two or three degrees, and we had a really hard race due to the weather. The weather was worse than the cobbles,\u201d he said once the yesterday\u2019s race ended.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou couldn\u2019t eat as well, and you couldn\u2019t grab the food with frosted hands,\u201d he continued. \u201cThere was a lot of attention. It was a very complicated race. The cobbles are hard but today it was more the weather.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n#DDV18<\/a> ? @alejanvalverde<\/a> (11\u00ba), garra y clase en las cotas y adoquines de A Trav\u00e9s de Flandes \u27a1\ufe0f https:\/\/t.co\/c320JLrApR<\/a>#DDVwomen<\/a> ?? @JasiGos<\/a> (7\u00aa), brillante primer top-ten para Movistar Team fuera de Espa\u00f1a ? https:\/\/t.co\/OvmI1b43gH<\/a> (? @ThomasMaheux<\/a>) pic.twitter.com\/QRgvtFQXpj<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) March 28, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n