Less than two months after breaking his knee cap at the Tour de France, Alejandro Valverde was back riding with Movistar on Monday.
The Spaniard was forced to abandon the Tour following the individual time trial in Dusseldorf on July 1 after crashing heavily in wet conditions.
Valverde underwent emergency surgery to repair the fracture, having also sustained a deep cut in his leg. After five days in hospital the 37-year-old returned home and was not expected to be back on a bike again this year.
However, Valverde was alongside his Movistar team-mates during their rest-day ride at the 2017 Vuelta, albeit with his knee heavily taped.
“I started to ride the bike before I could walk,” Valverde said. “The first month was the worst, later I worked a lot. I am not completely recovered, evidently, and I have a strange sensation in the leg, but I feel good.”
