The Spanish mountain bike champion, David Valero from Granada, will start 2024 with a new contract with the BH Coloma Team and with a new way of planning his preseason with the aim of improving the poor results of the final stretch of 2023.
His team, the Rioja team BH Coloma Team, has made public the renewal of the Spanish champion along with Jofre Cullel, the national rider who finished the season in the best shape, while he does not continue in the Rioja squad, in the men's formation, the Galician Pablo Rodríguez.
"I want to leave 2023 behind, forget it, because it was a year that did not go as expected," acknowledged the Baza rider, who until the end of July was the leader of the world mountain bike classification, in the cross-country modality. and ended the year in position 27.
This despite the fact that he achieved the results in the first half of the year that allowed him to stay at the top of the world ranking for more than nine months, since he reached that position at the end of the summer of 2022.
But starting at the last World Championship in Scotland, the BH runner had several "misfortunes" that led him to end his season abruptly.
First it was a problem with a shoe that left him without options in the World Championship, then he had physical discomfort and, finally, a severe oral infection led him to end the season.
"It has been a year in which I went from problem to problem," he acknowledged and recalled how at the beginning of 2023, in the preseason, he had to abandon the Cape Epic in South Africa, considered the mountain bike race, due to stomach problems. toughest disputed in the world.
Thus, since he stopped competing in September, Valero and his team have dedicated themselves to achieving a full recovery and designing another type of preparation, without extreme tests, such as that in South Africa, and others that usually ran in these months in the form of marathon, in pairs.
"This year we have left that a bit ruled out, to now focus on our modality, cross country," explains Valero who admits, however, that "after the Olympic Games we will see if it is time to run that type of race." careers".
But "above all, we have sought a preseason with few trips, which is also important," explained the runner from Baza, who after winning the bronze medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021, was subjected to an intense calendar of events. , tests in which they demanded their presence and a great demand in general "and that in the end takes its toll," he considers to explain what happened in 2023.
Thus, on this occasion he has opted for personalized training, to begin competing in races of his type in February, already at a high level, although with his sights set on the month of April, when the World Cup begins.
What the Spaniard has not changed is in his approach to races "because everyone is as they are" and "I assume that I am less explosive than others, I am more diesel, but it has always worked well for me that way" despite the fact that in the World Cup, that hurts it in the short events that open each competition weekend.
"But I am working to improve in that modality, which is what costs me the most and in some tests last year I did better," stressed the Andalusian cyclist.
Furthermore, he emphasizes, "in the Olympic Games there is no short race" and that is his great goal for 2024, the race in Paris, despite the fact that he still does not have a guaranteed place "because that depends on the coach and he will make the decision in its time, probably in May" and "it will depend on the state of fitness that we runners are in then."
But he believes that if he manages to give his best level he will once again compete with the best specialists in the world and will be able to represent Spain in Paris and for that he already thinks that "we have to start the season strong, maintain a good level until the end." end of spring and then give one more push for the Games.
It also has a small advantage, that "with what happened to me in 2023, I still go a little more unnoticed" in the international squad "although the level there is is very high and none of us despise anyone, because we know that anyone can win "among the main world specialists, concludes the BH Coloma Team rider.
