“A dream come true” – Alejandro Valverde on winning the World Championship

Alejandro Valverde, six times on the bottom two steps of a World Championship road race podium, says it is “ a dream come true” to have finally won the rainbow jersey.

The Spaniard was runner-up to his compatriot Igor Astarloa in Hamilton, Canada in 2003, and to Belgium’s Tom Boonen in Madrid two years later.

Since then, he has finished four times in the bronze medal position – at Salzburg in 2006 and then for three consecutive years from 2012-14.

A four-time champion of Liège–Bastogne–Liège and five times winner of La Flèche Wallonne with his most recent victories in those races coming last year, Valverde was always going to be one of the contenders today.

But his indifferent form at the Vuelta which finished a fortnight ago, combined with his age of 38 years, saw many discount his chances.

Instead it was France’s Julian Alaphilippe, who confirmed his form at the Tour de France this summer by winning the Tour of Britain earlier this month, who was considered the most likely to win in Innsbruck today.

But as a thrilling race headed towards its conclusion, the Frenchman was dropped on the final climb, with Valverde getting the better of Alaphilippe’s compatriot Romain Bardet and Michael Woods of Canada to win.

Already holding the record for the most podium finishes in the history of the race, Valverde was clearly overwhelmed by the realisation that finally, he was the champion.

“It’s incredible, I’ve been fighting and fighting for so long for this and I have to thank the team for their hard work for me, they get a ten out of ten,” he said.

“It was a very long sprint and not easy because the other guys in the breakaway had made sure I was doing a lot of the work in the final part.

“But I opened up the sprint with 300 metres to go, which is the distance I’m best at for sprints, and I got it. Words fail me, to be honest, it’s a dream come true that I’ve finally got the gold.”

Asked what he was thinking about during the last kilometre – by which time Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands had also bridged across to the front trio – Valverde said: “That in a situation like this,  I just couldn’t fail, with all the support I’ve had from people over all these years to try and do this.”

He didn’t fail, and finally after a glittering if sometimes controversial career – not least, the ban he served for doping after being linked to Operacion Puerto – the rainbow jersey is his.