Valverde: Olympic gold would be good, but it's not the same as a World Championship

Alejandro Valverde says he will target the Tour de France in 2016 as a build up to the Olympic Games road race

Alejandro Valverde after stage twenty-one of the 2015 Tour of Spain

(Image credit: Watson)

Alejandro Valverde is the latest rider to throw his name into the ring for the Olympic road race in Rio next year, but he insists that gold at the Games would not make up for his failure to win a World Championships.

Valverde has finished on the podium six times at the Worlds but has never stood on the top step - one of the few achievements missing from his impressive palmares.

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Stuart Clarke is a News Associates trained journalist who has worked for the likes of the British Olympic Associate, British Rowing and the England and Wales Cricket Board, and of course Cycling Weekly. His work at Cycling Weekly has focused upon professional racing, following the World Tour races and its characters.