[6] During his road racing career, Valverde took 133 professional victories, with some of his biggest wins having been the Vuelta a España in 2009, the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2008 and 2009, the Tour of the Basque Country in 2017, the Volta a Catalunya in 2009, 2017 and 2018, Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 2006, 2008, 2015 and 2017, La Flèche Wallonne in 2006, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, the Clásica de San Sebastián in 2008 and 2014, the 2006 and 2008 UCI ProTours, the 2014 and 2015 UCI World Tours, and the road race in the 2018 World Championships.

Valverde entered thirty-two Grand Tours, finished twenty-seven of them and placed in the top ten of the general classification on twenty occasions.

Born in Las Lumbreras, Murcia, Valverde came from a cycling family, his father Juan was an amateur bicycle racer and bought him a bike when he was six years old.

[9] Due to his many wins, Valverde was offered to ride for the elite amateur team Banesto based in Navarre, some distance away from his home in Murcia.

He ended the season with a second place in the 2003 UCI Road World Championships behind Igor Astarloa after winning the sprint ahead of Peter Van Petegem and Paolo Bettini.

In the Tour de France, Valverde was seen as one of the favorites for the yellow jersey until he had a disastrous individual time trial that diminished his chances of fighting for the overall classification.

His form faltered in the Pyrenees, and after being dropped on the Col du Tourmalet, eventually losing 5' 52" to stage winner Leonardo Piepoli, scrapping hopes of a podium finish.

He followed the Tour with a strong victory in the Clásica de San Sebastián, leading out the sprint and holding off Alexandr Kolobnev and Davide Rebellin.

Valverde started 2009 in good form by taking the points and mountains classifications in the Vuelta a Castilla y León while finishing 9th overall with two stage victories.

With the threat of not racing the Tour de France hanging over his head he entered the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré hoping to prove his worth.

He performed consistently throughout the two early time-trials to stay in touch with the leaders before finishing second on Mont Ventoux to take the lead in the overall classification.

Though Cadel Evans repeatedly attacked him in the final days he stayed on his wheel, with the help of compatriot Alberto Contador, to take the yellow jersey.

[28] Valverde would take the lead of the general, points and combination classifications after winning Stage 3, in which he chased down repeated attacks from Alberto Contador and outsprinted Joaquim Rodríguez at the finishing line.

[30] Valverde ultimately finished the Vuelta in second position overall after being a constant threat for the leader, which was Rodríguez until stage 17 where Contador soloed to victory and grabbed the lead,[31] which he would not relinquish.

Valverde won both the points and combination classification jerseys on the final day from Rodríguez as a result of a sixth-place finish on the last stage in Madrid.

[32] Valverde had to settle for a bronze medal in the World Championships in Valkenburg, as he was unable to reach Philippe Gilbert who attacked on the final climb of the Cauberg.

[49] The following Wednesday, Valverde equalled the record number of victories on La Flèche Wallonne with 3, distancing Julian Alaphilippe and Michael Albasini in the final meters of the Mur de Huy.

[59] A few days later in Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Valverde fended off a late attack from Dan Martin and managed to outsprint him at the line and take his fourth win in the event.

[61] He managed to put time into the rest of his general classification rivals, including Contador, Bardet, and most notably, defending champion Chris Froome (Team Sky).

Over the subsequent mountain stages, Valverde was consistently aggressive; however, it failed to pay off and by the end of the Dauphiné he was 4 minutes 8 seconds down on Astana's Jakob Fuglsang, in ninth place overall.

[62] Going into the Tour de France, Valverde stated that he would work for his teammate Nairo Quintana; however, he was still considered an outside bet for the final podium by many pundits.

His next race, the cobbled classic Dwars door Vlaanderen, resulted in an 11th place showing after being in the mix for the victory until the successful breakaway of eventual winner Yves Lampaert in the closing kilometers.

He made several long attacks in service of his teammates Quintana and Mikel Landa but all the three Movistar Team leaders failed to threaten the podium.

He triumphed in a small group sprint at the finish line ahead of Romain Bardet, Michael Woods and Tom Dumoulin, becoming the second oldest Road World Champion in history after Joop Zoetemelk.

[83] At the World Championship road race in Yorkshire, run in very rainy conditions, Valverde abandoned his title defence with about 60 km (37 mi) to go.

[104] Having finished thirteenth at his sixteenth and final Vuelta a España, Valverde concluded his road racing career with an Italian block of racing – he recorded finishes of second in the Coppa Ugo Agostoni,[105] fourth in the Giro dell'Emilia (assisting teammate Enric Mas to victory),[106] third in Tre Valli Varesine,[107] and sixth in Il Lombardia.

Alejandro Valverde has been linked by documentary and DNA evidence to the Operación Puerto, a blood-doping affair which erupted in May 2006 against doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and a number of accomplices.

[114] In early 2009 the Italian National Olympic Committee matched DNA samples taken from Valverde during a rest day in Italy of the 2008 Tour de France to plasma seized in the Operación Puerto investigation.

[117] Finally, on 31 May 2010 it was announced the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the appeals from WADA and the UCI and Valverde was banned for two years, starting 1 January 2010, but rejected the request that any results obtained by the athlete prior to the beginning of the suspension be annulled.

[120] After a lengthy court battle, he was suspended for two years as part of the Operación Puerto blood doping investigation, but he returned to competition in 2012 upon completion of the ban.