Alejandro Valverde blocked from competing at World Championships amid Movistar relegation worries

Alejandro Valverde is among several riders who have been blocked from competing at the UCI Road Cycling World Championships due to the battle between teams to avoid WorldTour relegation. A limit of 18 teams in pro cycling's top tier for the next WorldTour licence session of 2023-2025 has become a major talking point of late with teams tactically choosing where their riders compete in order to pick up points.

Ad With the World Championships taking place in Wollongong, Australia from September 18-25 — the men’s road race will be on the final day — UCI teams don’t want to release their best riders to travel as they will be jet-lagged and need to recover on their return, which has caused problems for the national teams' own selection wishes. Vuelta a España'Happy to get out of here' — Riders criticise 'nervous' Vuelta start in Netherlands23/08/2022 AT 09:16 «They pay me to put together the best team, with the riders they deem appropriate, but this time it won't be possible,” Spanish national coach Pascual Momparler told AS.

“We had a meeting on Friday to decide whether we would go to the World Championships or not and we finally decided that we will. Juan Ayuso and Marc Soler will be the leaders and we will try to form a team around them.” Opinion: Courageous Evenepoel staring down barrel of defeat in La Vuelta La Vuelta Stage 15 LIVE: Roglic and Evenepoel to do battle on queen stage Twenty teams are fighting for 18 spots to remain on the WorldTour, with Valverde’s Movistar in danger of being relegated.

Isreal-Premier Tech and Lotto Soudal currently hold the bottom two places and would be relegated as it stands. Valverde is currently racing at La Vuelta — his final Grand Tour of an illustrious career before retirement — but