2018 road race world champion Alejandro Valverde of Spain was unable to defend his title in the elite men's road race at the World Championships in Yorkshire on Sunday due to cold and wet conditions, retiring from the race with 90km to go. [Valverde told the Spanish website Marca.com, "It was completely freezing. Out of respect for my teammates and for Spain as a whole, I wanted to finish, but I couldn't."

"It was very cold, windy, raining, and completely frozen.

"I decided to quit when it happened rather than just try to keep up and eventually quit," said Valverde, who completed 170 km of the 261 km race distance, leaving seven of the nine finishing circuits. [Along with his brother Ion (16th) and Imanol Elviti (44th), only three from the eight-member Spanish team were able to compete; the ninth member, Iván García Cortina, was absent due to illness.

"The conditions were terrible, which was unfortunate," said Cortina. For Alejandro, it was also disappointing that he had to abstain."

Izaguirre added that he was disappointed with the result because "I felt I had the legs to do more."

"I almost went into the winning break. But I should be proud that I did my best while Alejandro was away. I did everything I could."

Spanish national coach Pascual Montparrell, who replaced last year's winning coach Javier Minguez, added that he too was pleased with his team's effort.

"Considering that things did not go our way, with the bad weather, Cortina falling ill on the morning of the race, and Alejandro being forced to retire, Gorka's ninth place proved that we know how to get something out of bad situations," he told AS.

"Izagirre, without its team leader, could have finished in the top 10.

Marca noted that only 46 finishers (out of 197 starters) finished Sunday's road race, the lowest number of finishers since the 1995 World Championships in Daitama, Colombia, where only 20 (out of 98 starters) finished that year.

Spain's Abraham Olano won the rainbow jersey that year, but as AS noted, the Spanish team was forced to return home without winning a single medal at this World Championship.