Valverde wins Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic
Valverde, two days shy of his 26th birthday, won the Fleche Wallonne one-day classic on Wednesday and claimed the oldest one-dayer of them all with physical and tactical nous after 262km and over 6hr 21min of tough racing.
The Spaniard, who has been tipped as a future yellow jersey winner following his stage win ahead of Lance Armstrong on his Tour de France debut last year, kept his cool in a tense finish to come over the line ahead of two Italian favorites.
Paolo Bettini, a former two-time winner of the race known as the 'doyen', finished second with former Tour of Italy winner Damiano Cunego, of Lampre, in an impressive third place.
Quick Step veteran Bettini had been one of the protagonists in the closing stages of the race, whose 12 tough climbs effectively makes it a race of attrition.
The 32-year-old Olympic champion pulled off a temporary tactical coup by attacking near the summit of the third from last climb at Sprimont as the chasing peloton continued their pursuit of Michael Boogerd and Joaquim Rodriguez, Valverde's teammate.
His acceleration prompted Valverde to follow, but left gaping holes in the bunch behind which contained more than a handful of victory contenders, including defending champion Alexandre Vinokourov.
Bettini's move allowed him to quickly halve the 45sec gap to the leading pair and it also forced those behind him to get organized for their own race finale.
That's exactly what happened on the fast descent into Liege, where Bettini was caught as the 40-strong chasing group upped their efforts to close the gap.
As Boogerd and Rodriguez got up out of their saddles in an effort to ascend the steep Saint Nicolas climb their lead on the peloton stood at 20secs.
But that soon diminished as the day's penultimate climb took its toll, and soon the leaders were swallowed up.
With a little less than six kilometers to go it was anybody's race.
Finally, after much watching and waiting it was Patrik Sinkewitz of the T-Mobile team who decided to attack a leading group of around 15 riders first just after the kilometer-to-go flag.
The young German's attempt was countered by a series of others from Ivan Basso, Franck Schleck, Valverde and Cunego. Boogerd also remained in contention, but the legs looked heavy and none made any significant ground.
In the closing 50 meters Valverde, who had resisted the temptation to attack late on, was already beginning to think about thanking Rodriguez for forcing the pace earlier.
Valverde even had time to sit up and raise his arms in triumph as he overtook Bettini shortly before the finish line.
After recent classics wins by Tom Boonen, Fabian Cancellara and Schleck this month, Valverde's win has confirmed the arrival of a new, younger breed in races traditionally won by more experienced riders.
For his efforts this week, Valverde also goes top of the Pro Tour standings.