Alejandro Valverde, who won his first 2022 season with Challenge Mallorca, said he was surprised that he is still winning before the 41-year-old starts this season, his last with the professional peloton.

Valverde turned professional with Kelme 20 years ago in the 2002 season and has won in every year of his career except the neo-pro season, the 2011 season when he was banned for doping, and 2020.

His victory at the Trofeo Pollensa-Porto d'Andratx over Brandon McNulty and Alexandre Vlasov was his 131st career win. He admitted that it was difficult to compete at the same high level in the 20th year of his career.

"More important for me than my age is that 20 years have already passed at the highest peak of the pro peloton," Valverde said after the race. [It's a very difficult thing to achieve, both physically and especially psychologically. When I was younger, I said I didn't think I would be in the peloton when I turned 34, and now, in April, I will be 42.

Valverde has targeted not only the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España this season, but also the Ardennes Classics, and will next head to the Vuelta a la Comunitat Valenciana, which he won in 2007 and finished second two years ago.

He said every race this season will be a tribute, and thanked the organizers of Challenge Mallorca, which he had won five times before Saturday, for honoring him at the start of the race.

"For me, every race is already a tribute. I'm really grateful to the organizers for honoring me at the start this morning, two podiums and one win is a great way to say goodbye to this race.

"I want to dedicate this win to two really important people. The first is Egan Bernal. I hope his recovery is going well and that we see him back on his feet as soon as possible."

[16 [And Juan Carlos Unzue (brother of Movistar director Eusebio). His strength, optimism and fighting spirit in the last few months have been invaluable, especially to everyone in this team, and I give them both a big hug and hope to see them soon."

His victory was the culmination of a day's work by the Movistar team, which seemed to execute flawlessly throughout the 170km hilly race. Teammates Enric Mas and Marc Soler attacked at various points, chipping away at the peloton, and on the final climb, Mas, Ivan Sosa, and Ainel Rubio led the pack as Valverde won again.

"The whole team was great today. Valverde said after the race, "The whole team was great today. On this Andratx climb, we had to work at a strong pace to get the faster legs down to the pack.

"I managed to pull away from Matthews, the strongest sprinter in the bunch, but with 250-300 meters to go I saw him trying to come back, so I sprinted before he came back.