Alejandro Valverde takes second victory in this year's Ruta del Sol at the Queen stage and cements overall success

Although his main goals of the season still lie well ahead of him and even though he has completed less racing days than in previous seasons, nobody has thus far been able to contain the voraciousness of Alejandro Valverde. In just seven days of racing, the Movistar Team captain has amassed four wins after taking the queen stage in the Vuelta a Andalucía, whose overall classification he also won for the second year running.

Valverde outsprinted the rest of the 12-man elite group at the end of a 182 km stage from Lucena to Rincón de la Victoria, the bunch breaking into pieces at the demanding La Pasa ascent that came just 14 km from the finish and marked the last of six categorized climbs of the final day. The Murcian left behind Simon Spilak (KAT) and Davide Rebellin (CCC) after enormous help from teammate Nairo Quintana. The overall podium was made up by Valverde, Jurgen Van den Broeck (LTB) and Mollema (BLA).

After the race Valverde expressed his satisfaction with the way things have gone for him personally and for the team as a whole, “Honestly, we couldn't have closed this race in a better way. It all went a bit like planned in the morning, when we always had the idea of letting a break go and having the other teams pulling at the front of the bunch. It went that way, and at the final climb, the pace by Nairo made it impossible that anyone could jump away. We all barely could follow him at that speed. In the finale, everyone was thinking of the stage win rather than the GC. The last turn was only 250 meters from the finish and I came in fourth place, maybe a bit too far, but I had good legs and could get to the top and win,” said the Murcian afterwards before looking ahead.

“I think that this is my best ever start for a season, and I'm the first one who is surprised about that. I cannot say I'm not well, because you can't win in bad form, but I wasn't expecting to do so well here. I'm lucky to live in Murcia and enjoy the good weather, so I can build a strong training base day by day and that makes gaining fitness easier. But the big goals are still far away and our plan is not to race too many competitions at this time of the year. I want to thank all team members, because they were splendid from the first to the last one - hats off."

Stage 3:

1 Alejandro Valverde - Movistar
2 Simon Spilak - Katusha
3 Davide Rebellin - CCC Polsat Polkowice
4 Bauke Mollema - Blanco Pro Cycling Team
5 Sander Armee - Topsport Vlaanderen
6 Jurgen Van den Broeck - Lotto-Belisol
7 Bart de Clercq - Lotto-Belisol
8 Nairo Quintana - Movistar
9 Jakob Fuglsang - Astana
10 Jon Izagirre - Euskaltel

General Classification:
1 Alejandro Valverde - Movistar
2 Jurgen Van den Broeck - Lotto-Belisol
3 Bauke Mollema - Blanco Pro Cycling Team
4 Simon Spilak - Katusha
5 Bart de Clercq - Lotto-Belisol
6 Jakob Fuglsang - Astana
7 Nairo Quintana - Movistar
8 Sander Armee - Topsport Vlaanderen
9 Davide Rebellin - CCC Polsat Polkowice
10 Dani Navarro - Cofidis