Praetorian guard to defend the title conquered in Innsbruck. Alejandro Valverde will have a compact team to revalidate the gold medal in the World Road in Yorkshire (United Kingdom) that will be held on September 29, with a very demanding route of 285 kilometers between the towns of Leeds and Harrogate.

The Spanish coach, Pascual Momparler , who debuts in this championship, announced on Thursday the eight riders who will wrap the Murcia in the World Cup, which includes three Movistar squires: Imanol Erviti , Marc Soler , José Joaquín Rojas ; the most promising Spanish rodent in the classics, the Spaniard Iván García Cortina (Bahrain), the brothers Ion and Gorka Izagirre (Astana), Luis León Sánchez (Astana) and the time trialist Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos). From the prelist announced last week they fall, among others, Enric Mas and Mikel Landa . The Basque and the Balearic were starting as the best climbers of the group announced by Momparler at the press conference last Wednesday in Guadalajara.

Valverde does not limit himself to a new challenge, but he acknowledges that revalidating the 2018 title is complicated, because the Yorkshire route has less mountainous slope than the one in the Innsbruck (Austria) championship. "It will be difficult to repeat a medal, but we are going to fight for it, we have a good selection, with people of great quality. I will have to rest after the Tour, but I get very well in shape," said the Murcia.

The layout of the Yorkshrie World Cup is hard, but less difficult than in 2018, it includes short and hard numbers. The end is an 800-meter ramp, suitable for Valverde, Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe , Slovakian Peter Sagan , Belgian Philippe Gilbert or British Simon Yates . In the list of favorites also appear the young runners who have emerged this season, such as the Dutch Mathieu Van der Poel , the Belgian Remco Evenepoel , the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar or the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz .

The individual time trial will be played by Jonathan Castroviejo and Lluis Mas (Movistar) on Wednesday, September 25. It consists of 54 kilometers and runs along a broken path between Northallerton and Harrogate.

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