Rafael Valls Ferri (born 25 June 1987) is a Spanish former professional

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most com ...

, who rode professionally between 2009 and 2021 for seven different teams. Valls took four victories during his professional career – a stage at the 2010 Tour de San Luis, a stage and the general classification at the

2015 Tour of Oman The 2015 Tour of Oman was the sixth edition of the Tour of Oman cycling stage race. It was rated as a 2.HC event on the 2015 UCI Asia Tour, and was held from 17 to 22 February 2015, in Oman. The race was organised by the municipality of Muscat, ...

, and a win in the 2019

Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia – Clásica de Ordizia is a Spanish professional cycle road race held in Ordizia, Basque Country. The first edition was held in 1922. Since 2005, the race has been organized as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour ...

one-day race. Following his retirement, Valls now works as a

directeur sportif A ''directeur sportif'' (, ) is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is seen as the equivalent to a field manager in baseball, or a head coach in football. At professional level, a directeur sportif follows t ...

for

UCI WorldTeam A UCI WorldTeam (2015–present), previously UCI ProTeam (2005–2014), is the term used by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to name a cycling team of the highest category in professional road bicycle racing, road cycling, the UCI World Tou ...

Career

Born in

Cocentaina Cocentaina (; ) is a locality and Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Comarques of the Valencian Community, comarca of Comtat, in the province of Alicante (province), Alicante, Spain. The village is located between the mountainous Serra d ...

, Valls left at the end of the 2013 season, and joined for the 2014 season. In 2015, Valls had his biggest victory to that point by winning the Tour of Oman and its fourth stage. In September 2015 it was announced that Valls would join from 2016 on a two-year deal. In August 2020, he was named in the startlist for the

2020 Tour de France The 2020 Tour de France was the 107th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's three Grand Tours. Originally scheduled to start on 27 June 2020, it was postponed until 29 August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France. The race began ...

. However, he crashed on the opening stage, and abandoned the race. At the end of the following year, Valls retired from the sport, despite holding a contract until the end of the 2022 season.

Major results

Source: ;2005 : 3rd

Time trial In many racing sports, an sportsperson, athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial (TT) against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athle ...

, National Junior Road Championships ;2008 : 9th Overall

Grand Prix du Portugal The Grand Prix du Portugal was a cycling race held annually in Portugal. It is part of the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the Union Cycliste Internatio ...

;2009 : 4th Overall

Circuito Montañés Circuito Montañés is a road cycling stage race held annually in Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is call ...

: 10th Overall

Tour de l'Avenir Tour de l'Avenir () is a French road bicycle racing stage race, which started in 1961 as a race similar to the Tour de France and over much of the same course but for amateurs and for semi-professionals known as independents. Felice Gimondi, Joo ...

;2010 : 2nd Trofeo Inca : 3rd Overall

Tour de San Luis Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which ...

::1st

Mountains classification ::1st Stage 2 : 9th Trofeo Deia ;2014 : 8th Overall

Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali The Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali (), also known as Coppi e Bartali, is an Italian cycle road race. It is run typically in late March over five days in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. History Between 1999 and 2000 it was cal ...

;2015 : 1st Jersey red

Overall Tour of Oman ::1st Stage 4 : 8th Overall

Paris–Nice Paris–Nice is a professional road bicycle racing, cycling stage race in France, held annually since 1933. Raced over eight days, the race usually starts with a prologue in the Paris region and ends with a final stage either in Nice or on the ...

: 8th Overall

Volta a Catalunya The Volta a Catalunya (; Tour of Catalonia, ) is a road bicycle race held annually in Catalonia, Spain. It is one of three World Tour stage races in Spain, together with the Vuelta a España and the Tour of the Basque Country. The race has had ...

;2016 : 8th Overall

Tour Down Under The Tour Down Under (currently branded as the Santos Tour Down Under for sponsorship reasons) is a cycling race in and around Adelaide, South Australia. It is traditionally the opening event of the UCI World Tour and UCI Women’s WorldTour ...

;2017 : 7th Overall

: 10th Overall

Critérium du Dauphiné The Critérium du Dauphiné, before 2010 known as the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, is an annual cycle sport, cycling road bicycle racing, road race in the Dauphiné region in the southeast of France. The race is run over eight days during ...

;2019 : 1st

;2020 : 9th Overall

Route d'Occitanie The Route d'Occitanie is a road bicycle race with 4 stages held annually in Southern France. It was first held in 1977 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. It is usually held a week before the Tour de France. ...

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

References

External links

* * 1987 births Living people People from Cocentaina Cyclists from the Province of Alicante Spanish male cyclists 21st-century Spanish sportsmen {{Spain-cycling-bio-1980s-stub