Valverde wins Tour of Valencia

Valencia - Alejandro Valverde finished safely in the pack on the fifth and final stage to clinch the Tour of Valencia on Sunday as BMC's Jurgen Roelandts won the stage.

Veteran Valverde won Thursday's second stage to take the overall lead and then benefitted from the neutralising of Friday's team time-trial to hold onto it.

On Saturday Valverde won the mountain stage overhauling breakaway leader Adam Yates with a late attack to extend his lead over Luis Leon Sanchez and Jakob Fuglsang in the standings.

"This victory is compensation for the hard work I did during my injury lay-off," said the 37-year-old, who smashed his knee in a horror fall during the 2017 Tour de France.

"I feel the same enthusiasm, the same desire and even more motivation than before," added the Movistar team leader.

Ardennes classics specialist Valverde's form will give him a boost ahead of his April bid to add to five La Fleche Wallonne and four Liege-Bastogne-Liege victories.

Results and standings after the fifth and final stage of the Tour of Vancia on Sunday run over 135.2km from Paterna to Valencia:

Stage five:

1. Jurgen Roelandts (BEL/BMC) 2hrs 58min 26sec, 2. Danny Van Poppel (NED/LNL) same time, 3. Clement Venturini (FRA/ALM) s.t., 4. Nelson Soto (COL/CJR) s.t., 5. Baptiste Planckaert (BEL/KAT) s.t.

23. Alejandro Valverde (ESP/MOV) s.t.

Overall

1. Alejandro Valverde (ESP/MOV) 13hrs 16mins 23sec, 2. Luis Leon Sanchez (ESP/AST) at 14sec, 3. Jakob Fuglsang (DEN/AST) 26, 4. Adam Yates (GBR/MIT) 37, 5. Jesus Herrada (ESP/COF) 48.