Ex-world champ Valverde aiming for postponed Tokyo Games

Former road cycling world champion Alejandro Valverde revealed on Wednesday that he wants to take part in next year's postponed 2020 Olympics despite turning 41 in 2021.

Valverde, who will celebrate his 40th birthday next month, announced in February that he would be retiring at the end of the 2021 season, making the yet-to-be-rescheduled Tokyo Games one of his last chances for a major honour.

"If the Games finally take place in the summer of 2021, if everything goes well and I'm still in good shape, I will go, even if I'll be 41 and everything will obviously be more complicated," Valverde said in a video published by his team Movistar on Twitter.

"If the selectors pick me, I'll go there to give my best."

The 2009 Vuelta a Espana winner has never won an Olympic medal despite participating three times, in 2004, 2008 and 2012.

He is currently in isolation at his home in Spain, one of the countries worst-hit by the Covid-19 outbreak.

On Wednesday, Spain joined Italy in seeing its number of deaths overtake China, with fatalities surging to 3 434.

Cycling is on hold until at least the end of April as the world grapples with a virus that has take the lives of over 20 000 people and left more than three billion living under lockdown.

????? @alejanvalverde valora el aplazamiento de los JJOO #Tokyo2020 oficializado este martes y explica cómo afrontará los próximos meses. Nos recuerda: "Tengo contrato para 2021". #SeguimosConectados?? Alejandro Valverde's thoughts on the postponement of the Olympic Games ?? pic.twitter.com/wSUEoaQ4qZ

— Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) March 25, 2020