Never rule out Alejandro Valverde. Even though this Movistar veteran was fluffed up in the battle for the stage win, Valverde's aggressive performance on Tuesday allowed the oldest rider in the Vuelta a España to threaten overall leader Richard Calapaz (Ineos Grenadier) by He is back in contention for the overall, albeit far from it.

The 40-year-old Valverde was 11th in the opening stage to Alate, which he won in 2012, and was there until Tuesday's stage 7, when he was 3 minutes behind Calapaz in the first week of the Vuelta.

But on Tuesday's main mountain, the first of two climbs in the first category, the Alto de Ordunya, Valverde moved into the day's big break, forming part of a three-man group for 20km midway through the stage and closing within seconds of the provisional race leader Then, as the gap closed, he jumped on an attack by Michael Woods (EF Pro Cycling). 5]

Valverde then finished third behind Woods, and with a time difference of nearly a minute and a time bonus of 4 seconds, he dropped to 9th place overall, and as his teammate Enric Mas told Spanish post-stage television, "Valverde is one up on the cards in the GC fight"

. [With me, Marc Soler, and Alejandro all running under 2 minutes, he will be another option in the important stages to come. I give Alejandro a perfect 10 for his run."

After the stage, Valverde commented on his close stage win. Valverde commented after the stage on how close he came to winning the stage: "I'm very happy with the way I rode.

"I was there as support to see if one of my teammates (Mas and Soler) would bridge from the main bunch.

The icing on the cake for Valverde would have been the stage win, but Woods got the better of him. In Valverde's words, "I took one of the breakaway group out of sight.

Valverde's objective in the break was to let the rival GC teams work from behind, to try to win the stage, and to spearhead an attack by Mas and Soler. He also thanked his two teammates, Jose Joaquin Rojas and Carlos Verona, for their hard work.

"Every day in this year's Vuelta is all I can do," said Valverde, who first raced the Grand Tour in 2002. And there are a lot of opportunities. I want to make the most of those opportunities."

Valverde's presence in the break also had some interesting side effects. It forced Ineos Grenadier to chase hard from behind, and on the second climb of Ordunya, he narrowed Caparaz's support to just Andrei Amador. In the mountain stages to come, the Ecuadorian leader may be isolated.

It remains to be seen if Valverde, after a poor first week and a poor season for Valverde and Movistar, has regained enough strength to remain in contention for the win in Wednesday's ultra-difficult mountain stages beginning at Moncalvillo.

But no one can forget that Valverde finished second overall in last year's Vuelta at the age of 39, or that the Vuelta is traditionally the Grand Tour where Valverde has shown his best form. And perhaps most importantly, no one has forgotten that with Mas and Soler as Movistar's main GC challengers, Valverde has the most freedom of action of the three Movistar pillars, and with 127 wins, he has the least to lose.