Chris Froome: Valverde is a potential Tour de France winner
(Cyclingnews.com)

Chris Froome (Team Sky) believes that Movistar`s Alejandro Valverde can maintain his stellar form until July, and that the Spaniard could be the rider to beat at the Tour de France. Valverde, who turns 37 on Tuesday, has been in blistering form since the start of the season, wining stage races and one-day events in unstoppable fashion. Last week he won La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège to cement his palmares as one of the most successful riders in the last 25 years and although he has only one Grand Tour to his name - the 2009 Vuelta a España - Froome thinks that the Movistar man can challenge for the yellow jersey. `He`s been in formidable shape so far this season. I can only take my hat off to the way that he`s raced so far,` Froome told the media at a press conference on the eve of the Tour de Romandie.ADVERTISEMENT With Movistar`s Nairo Quintana set to challenge for the maglia rosa at the Giro d`Italia, the Spanish squad`s Tour de France plans are still to be decided. Quintana has already stated that he will ride the Giro and the Tour but no rider has been able to win the double since the late Marco Pantani in 1998. Valverde has stood on the Tour de France podium before - alongside Froome and Quintana in 2015 - but he has never quite been able to mount a concerted GC challenge for the yellow jersey. `He`s normally a rider who is normally up there in the Grand Tours and I imagine this season more than ever that he`s going to be motivated to go for it in the Tour, especially if he`s not doing the Giro,` Froome said. `He`s a rider who races right until the end of the year at really good level but this year he seems to be even more up there. The Classics have just highlighted that even more.` You can read more at Cyclingnews.com