Alejandro Valverde arrived in Australia on Saturday, together with those of his Caisse d'Epargne teammates who will join him in the 2010 Tour Down Under. The Australian race - the first ProTour race of the 2010 season - will take place between January 19 and January 24.

"To travel from Murcia to Adelaide has been very long considering the fact that we started flying from Alicante on January 6 at 06:40 pm and arrived at the destination on January 9 at 07:15 am local time. Fortunately I had no problems with jetlag eventhough the difference is 9 hours and a half", Alejandro Valverde told Roadcycling.com earlier today.

"The most difficult thing is having to wake up every morning at 06:30 because of the weather. It is indeed so hot that we have to go out for training very early in the morning. Up until today the average temperature has been superior to 40 degrees (Celcius) and one day the thermometer even indicated 49 degrees. I like hot weather, but here it is really too much."

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"Considering we leave so early for training we are back in our hotel in Adelaide at noon. It gives us the chance to discover the city and its surroundings after we have lunch. This is my first time in Australia and all is new for me.  The other day we crossed a group of aboriginal people. This meeting impressed me so much that I tried to learn something more about their roots and culture. I see and learn new things every day. It is true that we had to spend many hours on the plane to arrive here but they are worthwhile, Valverde added when interviewed in his hotel.