According to the Spanish newspaper Marca, being in the splendid disposition from the very beginning of the season, Alejandro Valverde will most likely skip the Milan-San Remo this year after the new la Pompeiana climb has been eventually removed from its route.

The Movistar leader for the Tour the France originally had la Classicissima in his extremely tight schedule for the first part of the season and certainly would be considered one of the strongest contenders to claim the victory on the Milan-San Remo new route, but inevitable change forced by landslides made the course less suited to his characteristics, encouraging many sprinters to think over their racing programs and participate in the spring’s monument.

Nevertheless, Valverde is to be seen in many other events this spring, as he, rather surprisingly for one of the biggest Tour the France GC contenders (and less surprisingly concerning the cobbles to feature on stage 5), has the number of classics in his schedule that no Belgian would be ashamed of, including Dwars door Vlaanderen, E3 Harelbeke, Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.