Old habits die hard, and168澳洲5最新开奖结果: Alejandro Valverde admitted that while 🔯he is hopeful of a top result in tꦑhe UCI Gravel World Championships, one aspect of his former lengthy career on the road could be a fly in the ointment on Sunday.

After taking up gravel racing for ꦯhis l⛎ongstanding Movistar team once he retired from the road, Valverdไe has been training in Italy for the World Championships si🐽nce Tuesday.

But despite his success in 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:multiple gravel races in Spain, Valverde recently told the newspaper that he fears tha🐼t his lack of speed repairing punctures and handling mechanicals, born of long years having a following team car on the road to do that particular task for him, could be an issue.

While tipping 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) as top favourite, Valverde estimated that his own chances of success in the Worlds were as little as one in 20. But as he said in the interview, "that 5% chance is stil🐬l there."

"The good thing is that I'm still enjoying cyclin📖g and I still want to make people enjoy cycling," he said. "At the end of the day, you watch a race like the European Gravel Championships and you see how many good riders have come of road racing. It'll be the same kind of scenario, or perhaps even more so, in the Worlds."

♛Speaking before his final countdown round of training had begun, Valverde said his feelings were "good, but I'm also realistic. One thing is competing in general and another is competing against all the pros who are still racing. Any World Championships is fast-p📖aced and very hard. It'll be like Strade Bianche, but with more off-road sections."

Valverde has prepared his material for the Gravel Worlds conscientiously, he said, with a build-up of over two weeks. But he admitted to 🔜AS that keeping his bike out of trouble would form a significant element of staying in contention: something true for any competitor, but as Valverde see𓆏s it, more important for him, as a former roadie, than other rivals.

"My aꩲim is to do it as best I can, and not h🌠ave any breakages or crashes, because in these races if you have a puncture or a mechanical, there's no car behind."

As Valverde told AS, some rivౠals can have a problem such as a puncture, but "they're up and away again." When it comes to repair𒁏ing a puncture at high speed, Valverde said, "I almost don't know how to do that, so it'll take me a bit longer."

When it came to the switchover from road to gravel, Valverde said the technical elements in general were what had caused him the most trouble, particularꦕly on descending and singletrack. While he said he was improving in those areas, when it came to his chances on Sunday, in his opin🥀ion one road racer in particular already stood head and shoulders above the rest of the field.

The big favourite

"Van Aert is the top favourite," Valverde said. "It's imp꧃ossible to be bette🦹r prepared than he is. I think he'll win."

"Of course, there's what happens in the race itself, bu♏t if he doesn't have any problems and n🦋othing strange happens…there's nothing he can't do well."

"I will have my own expectations, bu♔t as you know I'm competitive and if there aren't any problems, I shouldn't do too badly. But you have to be realistic, and there's a 95% chance that I won't win…though that leaves 5% percent."

Now 43, after such a long career, it's been something of a standing joke that Valverde's continuing in gravel could herald a comeback on the road. But he denied to AS that that was the case, albeit with some doubts when he first hung up his road w𒉰heels.

"It was harder at first - I said to myself, he🐼ck I'm doing fine here. But when you weigh up the pros and cons, you see there could be a lot of downsides."

"You see that it gets harder and harder to win for one thing. And then yo🍸u realise 🉐there are seven or eight riders who are really monopolizing it all and winning all the most important races, anyway."