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Alejandro “El Imbatido / The Unbeaten” Valverde Belmonte grew up in a cycling family, and was given his first bike by his father – an amateur rider – at the age of six.
Aged eleven he placed second in his very first race, and two weeks after took his first victory. Valverde dominated the junior field in Spain, and won nearly every race, in which he participated, for the following five years. He was in fact so good that parents tried to convince him not to race certain event to allow other kids the opportunity to win.
macaroon-
Then he got into blood doping, denied and denied and denied when he got found out, tried to escape justice and was protected by his national federation (who have history when it comes to ensuring their star names get off scot free), only to have the UCI and WADA appeal to CAS and get him banned. When he returned he refused to accept he'd done anything wrong.
The sport would be in a far better place if it didn't welcome back cheats like Valverde with open arms.
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It might be a bit easier to understand if he'd always been second best, and was desperate to make it.
So he was good anyway, eventually came across people as good, and decided to cheat. (And then lie, etc).
Hero.
andyp
tbc
Valverde then -
a/ Still juicing to make him competitive at 38
b/ A very talented once in a generation rider who wasn't a great responder in the EPO days thus allowing him to ride faster later in life in a clean(er) sport.