WHEN ALEJANDRO VALVERDE rode his first Grand Tour, the 2002 Vuelta a España, he was 22 years young.
He didn’t do anything significant in the race. He didn’t even finish. Although he did manage to run fourth on the ninth stage around Córdoba before pulling the plug a week later on Stage 15, never making it to the top of the infamous Alto de L'Angliru. That day was won by four-time Vuelta champion Roberto Heras, riding for Lance Armstrong’s US Postal Service team, who would finish second to another Spaniard, Aitor González. In fact, Spaniards took eight of the first ten places on GC, the other two by Italian riders.
Meanwhile, back in Aalst in East Flanders, Belgium, terrible two-year-old Remco Evenepoel was running
