Spaniard takes second win of the season in falling rain in prologue.

With just four days of racing in what had hitherto seemed a cautious opening to his 2013 season, Alejandro Valverde demonstrated considerable competitive spirit and ambition by adding a second victory to his tally. The Spaniard took the honours in the prologue of the 59th Vuelta a Andalucía, held in San Fernando (Cádiz) over 6 km affected by light rain midway into the race, which jeopardized the chances by the last men on the course.

Evidently, Valverde was pleased with his performance and the outcome of the prologue.  “To be honest, I'm the first one who is surprised about this result,” he said afterwards. “My condition was good, but I made the course 20 seconds faster than last year, and that's a huge improvement. I knew the course and only watched it by car today; I didn't do a bike recce, but I found good legs right from the start. This victory is important for my confidence, especially because it's a time trial. That means the work we're doing on the TT bike is paying off already. There's still huge room to improve, but we're on the right track.”

He then went on to emphasize that today’s win was the result of a determined effort throughout the off season.

“We went through strong workloads during the winter on my TT position, I always train twice a week on that bike and that was important today. I feel more confident and calm this season - less km of training than in previous seasons at this point, but having no pressure is doing well. We didn't know what to do after Mallorca: Algarve, Haut Var, Andalucía - it wasn't clear, because in this time of the year, it's all about keeping the focus and searching for races that take a smaller effort, shorter routes, no long trips. My plan wasn't coming here to win, but we have a great squad and some of my team-mates should be up-front here too. It will be a really tough race."