text:
Alejandro Valverde

Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (born 25 April 1980) is a Spanish cyclist, who competed as a professional in road bicycle racing from 2002 to 2022, and now competes in gravel cycling for the Movistar Team Gravel Squad.

During his road racing career, Valverde took 133 professional victories, with some of his biggest wins having been the Vuelta a España in 2009, the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2008 and 2009, the Tour of the Basque Country in 2017, the Volta a Catalunya in 2009, 2017 and 2018, Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 2006, 2008, 2015 and 2017, La Flèche Wallonne in 2006, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, the Clásica de San Sebastián in 2008 and 2014, the 2006 and 2008 UCI ProTours, the 2014 and 2015 UCI World Tours, and the road race in the 2018 World Championships. Prior to his Worlds win, he already held the record for most medals won at World Championships – he twice collected the silver medal in the World Championships, in 2003 and 2005, as well as the bronze four times in 2006, 2012, 2013 and 2014. Valverde entered thirty-two Grand Tours, finished twenty-seven of them and placed in the top ten of the general classification on twenty occasions. He also shares the record for most wins in the Points classification in the Vuelta a España (four times) with Sean Kelly and Laurent Jalabert.

Valverde is rare in combining different specialties in road bicycle racing, being a strong climbing specialist, sprinter and a good time-trialist. The online database Cycling Ranking ranks him as the 3rd most successful cyclist of all time.

Biography
Born in Las Lumbreras, Murcia, Valverde came from a cycling family, his father Juan was an amateur bicycle racer and bought him a bike when he was six years old. His brother Juan Francisco was also an amateur road racing cyclist. Valverde's first race was in Jumilla, in his region of Murcia, and he finished second. On the following week he won his second race in Yecla. He allegedly took more than fifty consecutive victories between 11 and 13 years old, earning him the nickname El Imbatido (The Unbeaten).

Amateur career
Due to his many wins, Valverde was offered to ride for the elite amateur team Banesto based in Navarre, some distance away from his home in Murcia. Perhaps due to the exhaustion from having to travel back and forth every weekend, his performance suffered while with the team.

He moved to the development team of the professional squad and was coached by Francisco Moya, whom he credited with helping him become a better cyclist. Kelme also promised to allow him to move to the professional squad if he showed good performance. At the end of his first season with the Kelme amateur squad, they offered to move him to the professional squad.

Kelme (2002–2004)
Valverde turned professional in 2002 when he signed a contract with the Spanish team, with whom he stayed until the end of the 2004 season. During his time with Kelme he had a breakthrough year in the 2003 Vuelta a España, where he won two stages and finished third in the General classification. That year he also won the Vuelta a Mallorca and a stage in Tour of the Basque Country and other Spanish races like GP Primavera and GP Villafranca de Ordizia. He ended the season with a second place in the 2003 UCI Road World Championships behind Igor Astarloa after winning the sprint ahead of Peter Van Petegem and Paolo Bettini.

In the 2004 season he decided to stay with Kelme despite the team's financial woes and offers from other teams. He went on to win the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, the Vuelta a Murcia, a stage in the Tour of the Basque Country, the Vuelta a Burgos and taking fourth in the Vuelta a España. Although he won a stage in the Vuelta, he was injured in a crash that forced him to downscale his ambitions in the overall classification. He also participated in the Summer Olympics.

2005
Valverde joined the UCI ProTeam in 2005. He won the last stage in Paris–Nice and finished second overall behind Bobby Julich. He also took two stages in the Tour of the Basque Country. In his first ever appearance at the Tour de France, he won the 10th stage of the Tour de France ahead of Lance Armstrong, whom he beat in the sprint into Courchevel at the end of a mountain stage in the Alps. After Stage 12, he was in 5th place on GC, 3 minutes and 16 seconds behind Armstrong. He was also leading in the young rider classification (white jersey), with a 3-minute and 9 second lead on Armstrong's teammate Yaroslav Popovych. However, Valverde was forced to withdraw from the Tour during the 13th stage because of a knee injury. Valverde recovered barely in time for the UCI Road World Championships in Madrid, Spain. The injury of Óscar Freire, who was the Spanish team captain, forced him to become the team leader, despite having had only one day of competition before the Worlds. Amazingly, he was able to be competitive and finished second to winner Tom Boonen.

2006
In 2006, Valverde won a stage in the Tour of the Basque Country, finishing 2nd overall and capturing the points competition. He then completed a prestigious double in the Spring classics, winning La Flèche Wallonne and taking victory four days later at Liège–Bastogne–Liège. Valverde subsequently won a stage in the Tour de Romandie finishing 3rd overall. Valverde planned to challenge at the 2006 Tour de France, and stated that he hoped to win in the future. He went to the Pinarello bicycle factory in Treviso, Italy, to optimize his time-trialing performance. In fact he started among the favourites for the Tour after the withdrawal of Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso due to a doping investigation. However, on the third stage of the race, Valverde crashed, and had to abandon the Tour with a fractured right collarbone. His ambition to win a Grand Tour shifted to the Vuelta a España, later that year.

Valverde entered the Vuelta a España as the top favorite. Since he did not ride a full Tour de France he was in better condition than some of the other candidates for the victory: defending champion Denis Menchov and Carlos Sastre both ended in the top 10 of the Tour de France and were expected to be somewhat fatigued. Valverde won the 7th stage and dominated mountain stages, earning him the gold leader jersey after stage 9. Valverde lost the jersey, however, due to the aggressive climbing and attacking of Alexander Vinokourov. In the last time trial, Valverde again lost time on Vinokourov and had to settle for the 2nd place in the overall standings, his second podium finish in a Grand Tour. Following his impressive performance in the Vuelta, Valverde won yet another major title, winning the UCI ProTour with several major races still left on the calendar as his point lead had reached unassailable levels. At the UCI Road World Championships, Valverde was considered one of the favorites for the title. Although he did not win, he was able to finish 3rd and claim a bronze medal.

2007
He started 2007 by winning the overall classification at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Vuelta a Murcia. In stage 4 of the Vuelta a Murcia, Valverde accomplished his first win in an individual time trial. He also finished third in the Critérium International and fifth in the Tour of the Basque Country. In the Ardennes classics he took second place in both La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, unable to repeat the double victory of 2006 season. In the Tour de France, Valverde was seen as one of the favorites for the yellow jersey until he had a disastrous individual time trial that diminished his chances of fighting for the overall classification. He subsequently finished sixth overall, eleven minutes behind, and thus finished his first Tour de France after being unable to complete the race in 2005 and 2006. He decided not to race the Vuelta a España in order to prepare for the UCI Road World Championships.

On 29 August 2007, the UCI announced that they prevented Valverde from riding the World Championships in Stuttgart because of his possible implication in the Operación Puerto doping case to safeguard the atmosphere and reputation of the World Championships. The UCI also called upon the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) to open disciplinary proceedings against the rider, but RFEC refused to comply with the UCI's request, saying there was no new evidence against him. RFEC also included Valverde in its squad for the World Championships, where he ended up 2nd. The matter was taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which authorised Valverde to participate in the World Championships.

2008
In 2008, Valverde showed strong form in the spring. After winning the Vuelta a Murcia, Valverde was focused on training. He announced his readiness with a podium finish in the Klasika Primavera and a triumph at the Paris–Camembert. These successes foreshadowed excellent results in the Ardennes classics: a podium at the Amstel Gold Race and victory in Liège–Bastogne–Liège. Valverde also won the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and the Spanish National Road Race Championships in June. On 5 July, Valverde won the first stage of the Tour de France. His form faltered in the Pyrenees, and after being dropped on the Col du Tourmalet, eventually losing 5' 52" to stage winner Leonardo Piepoli, scrapping hopes of a podium finish. He performed better in the Alps and claimed a top ten finish. On Alpe d'Huez it appeared that he was working alongside to try to eliminate Cadel Evans.

He followed the Tour with a strong victory in the Clásica de San Sebastián, leading out the sprint and holding off Alexandr Kolobnev and Davide Rebellin. Later, at the Vuelta a España, he started strong, winning the second stage and wearing the general classification leader's jersey on the third one. He was among the leaders in the first week. However, he lost around two minutes on a very wet stage to Saunces and any chance of a podium finish. However, he ended up in fourth position overall at the end with some strong performances including an impressive ride up the Angliru, where he was only bettered by Alberto Contador and then a good performance in the mountain time-trial. Before the participation at the UCI Road World Championships at Varese, he was mathematically proclaimed the UCI ProTour winner, being his second win in the four editions of the competition.

2009
Valverde started 2009 in good form by taking the points and mountains classifications in the Vuelta a Castilla y León while finishing 9th overall with two stage victories. He could not repeat his successes of the last few years in the spring classics with his best result being a 7th at La Flèche Wallonne. He won the Klasika Primavera and the Volta a Catalunya to put those disappointments behind him. With the threat of not racing the Tour de France hanging over his head he entered the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré hoping to prove his worth. He performed consistently throughout the two early time-trials to stay in touch with the leaders before finishing second on Mont Ventoux to take the lead in the overall classification. Though Cadel Evans repeatedly attacked him in the final days he stayed on his wheel, with the help of compatriot Alberto Contador, to take the yellow jersey. On the back of these successes he appealed his ban by the Italian authorities with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the hope of racing the tour.

On 20 September 2009, Valverde clinched the overall victory in the Vuelta a España. Despite having no stage victories, Valverde's consistency in the mountains allowed him to keep the leader's jersey all the way to end, after capturing it on stage 9.

2010
All his 2010 results were annulled because of the suspension.

2012
Valverde made his return to the peloton during the Tour Down Under, the first race of the UCI World Tour season. He won the race's fifth stage – the queen stage of the event – by out-sprinting 's Simon Gerrans in a two-man sprint in Willunga, and finished second overall. He earned his first overall victory since his return, by winning February's Vuelta a Andalucía, as well as achieving a stage victory during the race. Valverde also finished third in Paris–Nice, and by winning stage 3 showed good form for the upcoming Tour de France. In the Tour de France he sat casually in the peloton until initiating a breakaway in stage 17, which he held onto after breaking away from the other 16 riders in the breakaway. almost chased him down, ending only 19 seconds adrift; it was Valverde's fourth Tour de France stage victory.

Valverde entered the Vuelta a España as a lieutenant to the defending champion Juan José Cobo in the. However, Valverde would soon become the leader when it became apparent that Cobo was not in top form. His started off with a victory in the first stage, a team time trial. Valverde would take the lead of the general, points and combination classifications after winning Stage 3, in which he chased down repeated attacks from Alberto Contador and outsprinted Joaquim Rodríguez at the finishing line. He would subsequently lose the lead to Rodríguez, but won the eighth stage atop the Collada de la Gallina in Andorra. Contador broke away from the small lead group and looked like he was heading for the win, but Rodríguez and Valverde passed him with less than 100 m to go, with Valverde taking the win. Valverde ultimately finished the Vuelta in second position overall after being a constant threat for the leader, which was Rodríguez until stage 17 where Contador soloed to victory and grabbed the lead, which he would not relinquish. Valverde won both the points and combination classification jerseys on the final day from Rodríguez as a result of a sixth-place finish on the last stage in Madrid.

Valverde had to settle for a bronze medal in the World Championships in Valkenburg, as he was unable to reach Philippe Gilbert who attacked on the final climb of the Cauberg. He was the first of a group of 27 riders who had a five seconds deficit on the Belgian when crossing the line. He was supposed to participate in the Giro di Lombardia, but announced on the morning of the race that he was suffering from influenza and was putting an end to his 2012 season.

2013
As in 2012, Valverde won the overall classification of the Vuelta a Andalucía in 2013, where he also won the points classification in the race. Valverde continued showing some good form after finishing with podium places in the Vuelta a Murcia, the Amstel Gold Race and in Liège–Bastogne–Liège. After having a decent spring campaign, Valverde aimed for a podium finish in the Tour de France. Valverde started the Tour in good form after finishing third in Ax3 Domaines behind Chris Froome and Richie Porte. However, the next day, Porte lost over 15 minutes which moved Valverde into second overall right before the tour left the Pyrenees. On Stage 13, Valverde lost almost 10 minutes after getting a flat tyre. Despite a very hard pursuit, the high crosswinds and the pace of the peloton prevented him and his teammates from catching back. They ended up with the second group at the finish causing him to slip out of the top ten. Despite losing his second position, Valverde managed to do well in the Alps which moved him back into the top ten of the overall standings, finishing 8th overall.

At the Vuelta a España, after stage 10, Valverde sat fourth overall a minute behind race leader Chris Horner. However, on stage 11, he moved back up into 3rd after finishing 8th in the time trial. On stage 14, on a rainy descent, Valverde was dropped by the G.C. contenders entering the final climb a minute back. He managed to limit his losses on the final climb staying within a minute of his rivals, though losing close to a minute on Nibali, Horner, and Joaquim Rodríguez. On stage 16, he managed to cut back a handful of seconds on Nibali and Horner. He entered the penultimate stage 20 a minute behind the race leader. He came third of the stage which finished atop the steep Alto de l'Angliru, securing a podium finish in the general classification, one minute and 36 seconds behind race winner Horner. At the World Championships, he took the third place, but was criticized for failing to cover the late attack of Portuguese Rui Costa. Costa eventually reached and out sprinted Rodríguez, Valverde's Spanish teammate.

2014
In the Tour de France, Valverde ended in fourth place in the general classification. On 2 August 2014 Valverde won the Clásica de San Sebastián for the second time in his career. He won the first uphill finish of the Vuelta a España by powering away from the leaders after leading the group for most of the final climb. He finished the Spanish Grand Tour on the third step of the podium behind Chris Froome and the overall winner Alberto Contador. After the Vuelta, it was announced that Valverde had signed a three-year contract with his, meaning that he would ride for them until at least 2017. At the World Road Race Championships in Ponferrada, Valverde stood on the third step on the podium for the third year in a row. He came in second at the Giro di Lombardia, passing Contador for first place in the UCI World Tour rankings.

2015
Valverde grabbed three stage victories in the Volta a Catalunya. On stage 2, he got the better of a bunch sprint and helped score a 1–2 for the with his teammate José Joaquín Rojas. On stage 5, he launched a late attack as he was part of a small group containing all the leaders coming into Valls and won solo. On the last stage, he won the sprint of a group of about 40 riders and with the bonus seconds, snatched the second place of the overall classification from Domenico Pozzovivo. At the Amstel Gold Race he came in second, being bested in a small group sprint by Michał Kwiatkowski. The following Wednesday, Valverde equalled the record number of victories on La Flèche Wallonne with 3, distancing Julian Alaphilippe and Michael Albasini in the final meters of the Mur de Huy.

He went one better the following Sunday, winning the sprint of a small group of riders to impose himself on Liège–Bastogne–Liège. It was the third time in his career Valverde had won La Doyenne. It was also the second time that he had won Liège–Bastogne–Liège and La Flèche Wallonne in the same year, becoming only the second rider to have achieved this double twice, after Ferdinand Kübler. In June, he won the Spanish National Road Race Championships. At the Tour de France, Valverde finished on the podium in 3rd place, his first podium finish at the Tour; achieving a lifelong dream of a top 3 finish. With that finish he had one career goal left, a World Championship victory.

2016
Valverde's main goals for the 2016 season were the Ardennes classics, the Giro d'Italia and the Road Race at the Olympic Games in Rio. He started his season by taking the overall at the Vuelta a Andalucía in February. He out-powered the rest of the contenders, including Tejay van Garderen and Rafał Majka, on the climb up to the finish on the final stage. Valverde changed his initial plan of riding the Tour of Flanders and went to Tenerife to prepare for the Giro. He returned to competition by winning two stages and the overall at the Vuelta a Castilla y León which he chose to race instead of the Amstel Gold Race, a race still lacking from his palmáres. The following Wednesday he took his third consecutive La Flèche Wallonne victory and became the most prolific winner of the "smaller" Ardennes Classic with his fourth win. He showed his climbing prowess by controlling up until the last 150 m when he accelerated away from his rivals to take the victory. The Sunday following, he went out to repeat his Ardennes double from 2015 by securing another Liège–Bastogne–Liège win but he fell short and only managed to finish 16th.

Valverde was named in the start list for the Giro d'Italia, his first participation in the Italian race. Valverde rode a consistent race but struggled in the high mountains especially on the queen stage in the Dolomites where he lost more than three minutes. He fought back the very next day with a third place in the mountain time trial and managed to win his first Giro d'Italia stage the day after the rest day in Andalo, his 14th stage win over the three Grand Tours. He secured his spot on the podium by outclimbing Steven Kruijswijk on the very last mountain stage and finished third overall, becoming only the 16th cyclist to finish on the podium in each of the three Grand Tours.

Later that year, Valverde finished sixth in the Tour de France, earning his ninth consecutive top 10 finish in his last nine grand tour starts. A week later he was third at the 2016 Clásica de San Sebastián. At the Vuelta a España he finished 12th in the general classification and third in the points classification. Upon completing the Vuelta he became just the 33rd rider in cycling history to complete all three grand tours in the same season. Valverde finished fourth in the World Tour season standings.

2017
In February 2017 Valverde took his first win of the season at the Vuelta a Murcia, a race that he had previously won four times. He followed this up with a win in the Vuelta a Andalucía for the fifth time in six years, defeating runner-up Alberto Contador by a single second and winning stage one in the process. The overall win was the 100th victory in Valverde's career. After not starting Paris–Nice due to illness, Valverde went on to dominate the Volta a Catalunya by winning stages three, five, and seven and beating runner-up Contador by over a minute. This was done in spite of him and his team being given a one-minute penalty for "pushes" in the opening team time trial. At the Tour of the Basque Country, Valverde won stage five and went into the final day's individual time trial as the race leader, albeit on the same time as 's Rigoberto Urán and Michael Woods, 's Romain Bardet, and ' Louis Meintjes, along with having just a three-second advantage over Contador. In the time trial, Valverde finished second on the day to Primož Roglič of by just nine seconds, and he beat Contador by fourteen seconds, extending his overall lead, and giving Valverde his third stage race victory of the season.

He punctuated his dominance in La Flèche Wallonne by winning the race for the fourth consecutive year and the fifth time overall. A few days later in Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Valverde fended off a late attack from Dan Martin and managed to outsprint him at the line and take his fourth win in the event. After taking time off from racing to train at a 25-day altitude camp at Sierra Nevada, Valverde raced in the Critérium du Dauphiné, where in the stage four time trial he clocked the third best time, losing out only to world time trial champion Tony Martin and 's Richie Porte by twelve and twenty-four seconds respectively. He managed to put time into the rest of his general classification rivals, including Contador, Bardet, and most notably, defending champion Chris Froome. Over the subsequent mountain stages, Valverde was consistently aggressive; however, it failed to pay off and by the end of the Dauphiné he was 4 minutes 8 seconds down on 's Jakob Fuglsang, in ninth place overall. Going into the Tour de France, Valverde stated that he would work for his teammate Nairo Quintana; however, he was still considered an outside bet for the final podium by many pundits. On the opening individual time trial stage, Valverde crashed on a tight corner and was forced to abandon the Tour immediately; his first Grand Tour withdrawal since 2006. He suffered a fractured kneecap, ruling him out for several months. Ultimately, Valverde opted to end his 2017 season because of his knee injury with the hope of making his comeback at the start of the 2018 season.

2018
Valverde returned to racing at the Challenge Mallorca in late January 2018. At the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, he took his first victory after his comeback, winning stage two and taking the overall lead in the process. The following weekend, he finished second to compatriot Luis León Sánchez in the Vuelta a Murcia. Later in February, Valverde claimed overall victory at the Abu Dhabi Tour, winning the stage to Jebel Hafeet. Valverde finished 17 seconds clear of Dutch rider Wilco Kelderman from.

In March, Valverde rode the Strade Bianche classic, held partially on gravel roads in torrential rain. He finished fourth, 1 minute and 25 seconds behind winner Tiesj Benoot of. Later that month, Valverde won the Volta a Catalunya for the third time in his career. Valverde won the second and fourth stages during the race, taking the race lead – and the mountains jersey as well – for good after his second stage victory. He finished 29 seconds clear of his nearest rival, teammate Nairo Quintana, after Quintana's Colombian compatriot Egan Bernal crashed out of the race on the final day. His next race, the cobbled classic Dwars door Vlaanderen, resulted in an 11th place showing after being in the mix for the victory until the successful breakaway of eventual winner Yves Lampaert in the closing kilometers. After taking victory in the GP Miguel Induráin followed by a second place in the Klasika Primavera, he began his Ardennes campaign with 5th place at the Amstel Gold Race. On the following Wednesday he was beaten by Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe at La Flèche Wallonne, a race he had won the four previous years. Furthermore, he was unable to win Liège–Bastogne–Liège and finished 13th making it the first time since 2013 that he did not win an Ardennes Classic race.

After a lengthy break he won the Route d'Occitanie stage race in June where he prepared for the Tour de France. He made several long attacks in service of his teammates Quintana and Mikel Landa but all the three leaders failed to threaten the podium. Valverde returned for the Vuelta a España where was supposed to work for Quintana. He won stage 2 in an uphill sprint and stage 8 in a reduced bunch sprint, beating then World Champion Peter Sagan in the latter. He maintained a high position in the general classification until the last weekend and still had a chance of overall victory. He struggled in the last two stages in Andorra and only managed to finish 5th, but won the points classification for a record-equalling fourth time.

Valverde won the gold medal at the UCI Road World Championships in Innsbruck, in his twelfth participation. He triumphed in a small group sprint at the finish line ahead of Romain Bardet, Michael Woods and Tom Dumoulin, becoming the second oldest Road World Champion in history after Joop Zoetemelk. An emotional Valverde called this his biggest ever victory and one he has chased for 15 years.

2019
Valverde took his first major result of 2019 when he finished second overall to Ion Izagirre in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. He then finished second again, this time to Luis León Sánchez, at the Vuelta a Murcia. At the 2019 UAE Tour, Valverde took his first victory as World Champion by winning the sprint at the summit finish of stage 3. He would go on to finish the race in second place overall.

During the spring classics, Valverde rode the Tour of Flanders, his first participation in the monument. He finished the race in eighth place. Valverde endured a difficult end to his spring campaign. At the Flèche Wallonne, he swallowed a bee during the race and eventually finished 11th. A crash in the leadup to Liège–Bastogne–Liège resulted in a bone edema. Valverde started the race, not knowing of the severity of his injury, and then abandoned during the event, the first time he had not finished. After recovering from his injuries, he returned to racing at the Route d'Occitanie, which he won. On 30 June, he won the Spanish National Road Race Championships for the third time in his career. At the Tour de France, he finished ninth overall. At the Vuelta a España, Valverde took victory at stage 7 of the race, a summit finish at Mas de la Costa. He would eventually finish the Vuelta in second place overall, 2 minutes, 16 seconds behind Primož Roglič. At the World Championship road race in Yorkshire, run in very rainy conditions, Valverde abandoned his title defence with about 60 km to go. Towards the end of the season, he finished second to Bauke Mollema at Il Lombardia.

2020
Valverde contested six races prior to the COVID-19 pandemic-enforced suspension of racing, recording a best finish of second place to Emanuel Buchmann at the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana, a one-day race held as part of the Vuelta a Mallorca. Following racing re-commencing, Valverde contested both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, finishing the races in twelfth and tenth positions respectively. He finished in the second chase group in the road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Italy, with an eighth-place finish.

2021
Having finished fourth in March's Volta a Catalunya, Valverde took his first victory in more than eighteen months with his record-equalling third victory in the GP Miguel Induráin, soloing clear with approximately 2 km remaining. He recorded top-five finishes in each of the three Ardennes classics, making the podium with a third-place finish at La Flèche Wallonne. At June's Critérium du Dauphiné, Valverde won the sixth stage in a sprint of a small group in Le Sappey-en-Chartreuse, his first stage win at the race in thirteen years. He then competed in the Tour de France, finishing twenty-fourth, with his best stage result being a second-place finish to Sepp Kuss on stage fifteen, which finished in Andorra. He also participated in the men's individual road race in the COVID-19 pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics, his fifth participation at the Summer Olympic Games. He failed to finish the Vuelta a España after a crash on the seventh stage, the first time he had abandoned the race since his first start in 2002. His next start came at the Giro di Sicilia, where he won a stage and finished second overall to Vincenzo Nibali, losing the race lead following Nibali's final stage victory.

2022
In October 2021, Valverde announced that the 2022 season would be his final season as a professional rider. At the Vuelta a Mallorca, Valverde finished second to Tim Wellens in the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana, before winning the Trofeo Pollença – Port d'Andratx in a sprint à deux against Brandon McNulty. The following month, he won a stage, the general classification and the points classification at the inaugural running of O Gran Camiño. He was the closest competitor to Tadej Pogačar in Strade Bianche, with Pogačar winning from a 50 km solo attack. He finished second to Dylan Teuns at La Flèche Wallonne in April, before riding the Giro d'Italia for the first time since 2016, finishing eleventh overall. Having finished thirteenth at his sixteenth and final Vuelta a España, Valverde concluded his road racing career with an Italian block of racing – he recorded finishes of second in the Coppa Ugo Agostoni, fourth in the Giro dell'Emilia (assisting teammate Enric Mas to victory), third in Tre Valli Varesine, and sixth in Il Lombardia.

Gravel racing
In April 2023, it was announced that Valverde was coming out of retirement to compete in gravel cycling for the Movistar Team Gravel Squad. He won two events on the UCI Gravel World Series, winning La Indomable in Almería, and the Ranxo Gravel in Ponts, Lleida. Valverde finished on the 4th place at the 2023 World Gravel Championships.

Doping
Alejandro Valverde has been linked by documentary and DNA evidence to the Operación Puerto, a blood-doping affair which erupted in May 2006 against doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and a number of accomplices. It uncovered doping products, bags of blood and human plasma, and code names that appeared to link top athletes, including up to 60 cyclists, to a highly organized system of doping, which relied heavily on blood transfusions.

Valverde was not initially linked in the investigation, but documents from Madrid's Court 31 linked Valverde to a single bag of human plasma of the 211 total bags of blood and plasma seized in the investigation. The bag of human plasma was labelled with the codes Valv, Piti and 18. In 2007 Valverde was banned by the International Cycling Union (UCI) from competing in the UCI Road World Championships in Stuttgart but Valverde was cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to compete at the championships. Dick Pound, World Anti-Doping Agency president, said the CAS decision did not mean that Valverde was no longer a suspect.

In early 2009 the Italian National Olympic Committee matched DNA samples taken from Valverde during a rest day in Italy of the 2008 Tour de France to plasma seized in the Operación Puerto investigation. At a February 2009 appearance in front of the Olympic Committee, Valverde maintained his innocence and questioned the Italians' jurisdiction over this case. In May 2009, the Italian Olympic Committee suspended him from competition in Italy for 2 years, effectively barring him from the 2009 Tour de France, which detoured briefly onto Italian soil. Valverde filed an unsuccessful appeal against the Italian ban with the Court of Arbitration for Sport; in a second hearing on 18–21 March 2010, the UCI and WADA contested the Spanish Cycling Federation's decision not to open a case against Valverde.

Finally, on 31 May 2010 it was announced the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the appeals from WADA and the UCI and Valverde was banned for two years, starting 1 January 2010, but rejected the request that any results obtained by the athlete prior to the beginning of the suspension be annulled. After serving the two-year suspension Alejandro Valverde returned to competition in 2012 riding for the.

After a lengthy court battle, he was suspended for two years as part of the Operación Puerto blood doping investigation, but he returned to competition in 2012 upon completion of the ban. All his results from 2010 were stripped, including the overall win in the 2010 Tour de Romandie, and he did not compete in 2011.

Awards

 * Vélo d'Or: 2018

title: Alejandro Valverde


text:
User talk:Alasdairking

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia! Hope you like it here, and stick around.

Here are some tips to help you get started:

 * To sign your posts (on talk pages, for example) use the '~' symbol. To insert just your name, type ~~~ (3 tildes), or, to insert your name and timestamp, use ~~~~ (4 tildes).
 * Try the Tutorial, and feel free to experiment in the test area.
 * If you need help, post a question at the Help Desk
 * Follow the Simplified Ruleset
 * Eventually, you might want to read the Manual of Style and Policies and Guidelines.
 * Remember Neutral point of view
 * Explore, be bold in editing pages, and, most importantly, have fun!

Good luck!

Meelar (talk) 15:40, July 12, 2005 (UTC)

Are you the Al King reknowned for his coarseness in the Amateur Dramatics circuit? Do you associate with Gilbert and Sullivan? 57.66.51.165 13:34, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I am! Who are you?

K. B. Wagers moved to draftspace
An article you recently created, K. B. Wagers, does not have enough content, sources and citations as written to remain published. It needs more citations from reliable, independent sources. (?) Information that can't be referenced should be removed (verifiability is of central importance on Wikipedia). I've moved your draft to draftspace (with a prefix of " " before the article title) where you can incubate the article with minimal disruption. When you feel the article meets Wikipedia's general notability guideline and thus is ready for mainspace, please click on the "Submit your draft for review!" button at the top of the page. John B123 (talk) 21:22, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

Your draft article, Draft:K. B. Wagers

Hello, Alasdairking. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or Draft page you started, "K. B. Wagers".

In accordance with our policy that Wikipedia is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia mainspace, the draft has been nominated for deletion. If you plan on working on it further, or editing it to address the issues raised if it was declined, simply and remove the, , or  code.

If your submission has already been deleted by the time you get there, and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion by following the instructions at this link. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.

Thank you for your submission to Wikipedia! UnitedStatesian (talk) 16:36, 8 February 2021 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of WebbIE

The article WebbIE has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern: "Does not meet WP:GNG and WP:NSOFT. There are no sources on the topic besides primary promotional ones."

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, pages may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the page to address the issues raised. Removing will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Anton.bersh (talk) 09:33, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

 * Hello, I nominated this article for deletion because I believe it does not meet Wikipedia standards. If you have better sources you are welcome to remove deletion template add the sources to the article. Also, if you are the creator of this software, please consult WP:COI. Anton.bersh (talk) 09:39, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

Nomination of The Queue for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article The Queue is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Articles for deletion/The Queue until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article until the discussion has finished. —  Red-tailed hawk (nest) 21:49, 15 September 2022 (UTC)

DYK for The Queue
Cwmhiraeth (talk) 12:03, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:Alasdairking


text:
The Spectacles

The Spectacles may refer to:

 * The Spectacles, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia
 * The Spectacles Wetlands, a wetland in the above suburb
 * The Spectacles (short story), a short story by Edgar Allan Poe
 * The Spectacle Maker, a 1934 short film

title: The Spectacles


text: File:Forevermariah.jpg

title: File:Forevermariah.jpg


text: User talk:81.171.151.237

title: User talk:81.171.151.237


text:
User talk:Thedatastream

 * How to edit a page
 * Editing, policy, conduct, and structure tutorial
 * Picture tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * The Five Pillars of Wikipedia
 * Naming conventions
 * Manual of Style
 * Merging, redirecting, and renaming pages
 * Deletion Policy
 * If you're ready for the complete list of Wikipedia documentation, there's also Topical index

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:01, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Thedatastream


text:
Talk:Cat hoarding

It appears this article should be combined with animal hoarding. —Ryanaxp 15:42, July 12, 2005 (UTC)
 * I'm inclined to disagree. The two appear distinctly different. Animal hoarding involves purchasing a number of animals and keeping them in your home, while cat hoarding involves feeding stray cats. However, it does seem silly to have two articles on such a similar subject. At the very least a link to Cat hoarding should be provided at the animal hoarding article. --Psyk0 16:11, 17 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Hey, I am going to put back up the proposal to combine the article. I disagree on factual grounds with Psyk0's objection.  First, feeding stray cats is not cat hoarding.  It contributes to human health hazard and ignores the problem of overbreeding among cats.  Nevertheless, it is not hoarding.  I'm not sure what it is called.  The article defines hoarding as "harboring large numbers of cats in a private home."  This is not ""feeding stray cats."

 * Second, hoarding does not require the purchase of animals. Often, the animals interbreed.  It is a self-sustaining (and indeed growing) population.  (They even commit incest, which leads to a great number of congenital problems.)

 * Moreover, cat hoarding is logically a subcategory of animal hoarding. Perhaps, it differs from other forms of animal hoarding in that cat hoarders stick to cats more than other animal hoarders (but I don't have any personal observations or knowledge to back this assertion).--Brianbeck 00:25, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Agree with Brianbeck. Cat hoarding is no different from hoarding other animals. Maybe it's more popular, but that still doesn't warrant an article on its own. Dr Zak 22:31, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

pov
This article portrays cat hoarding and cat hoarders in a very negative light. I don't know enough about the subject to rewrite, but I'm certain that it's possible. Dave 23:40, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Of course it portrays it in a negative light. Cat hoarding in many instances is tantamount to animal abuse, and generally indicative of mental illness; there is a reason the authorities get involved with these cases. You've offered no argument to refute this, which you should have done before you flagged the topic as NPOV. angrywhiteman < This user name does not exist. --WikiCats 11:03, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

two lesbain cat hoarders lived down the street from me. they kept desceased cats and cats feesces in thier refrigirator. on of the lesbains visciously beat the other and covered her in feesces. niether of them used the toilet. maybe some destructive behaviour is ensued in a cat hoarding individual.

title: Talk:Cat hoarding


text:
Heavens Above!

Heavens Above! is a 1963 British satirical comedy film directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting, and starring Peter Sellers. It was written by John Boulting and Frank Harvey, from an idea by Malcolm Muggeridge.

Plot
A naive but caring prison chaplain, John Smallwood, is accidentally assigned as vicar to the small and prosperous English country town of Orbiston Parva, instead of a cleric with the same name who is favoured by the Bishop who wants to maintain the support for the church of the Despard family, who practically run the town and operate a large factory there.

Smallwood's belief in the practical application of charity and forgiveness sets him at odds with the locals, whose assertions that they are good, Christian people are belied in Smallwood's eyes by their behaviour and ideas. He creates social ructions by appointing a black dustman as his churchwarden, taking in a family being evicted from their illegal encampment, and persuading local landowner Lady Despard to provide food for the church to distribute free to the people of the town.

His scheme spirals out of control and very soon the local traders are up in arms as they have lost all their customers. He tries to explain this to the residents but is besieged in the church hall and only just rescued by the police.

As a face-saving act, the Bishop appoints the "correct" Smallwood to the parish and assigns the "troublemaker" to the Scottish island of "Ultima Thule" and makes him "Bishop of Outer Space" to the British space operations based there. But when the intended pilot of the first rocket gets cold feet, Smallwood takes his place. He is last heard broadcasting hymns over the space capsule's radio.

Locations
The film was shot at Shepperton Studios, England. Shepperton railway station served as the station of the fictional Orbiston Parva. The mansion where Lady Despard resided was Claremont in Surrey, a listed building designed by the renowned architect Capability Brown built in 1774.

Cast

 * Peter Sellers as the Reverend John Edward Smallwood
 * Cecil Parker as Archdeacon Aspinall
 * Isabel Jeans as Lady Lucy Despard
 * Ian Carmichael as the other Smallwood
 * Bernard Miles as Simpson
 * Brock Peters as Matthew Robinson
 * Eric Sykes as Harry Smith
 * Irene Handl as Rene Smith
 * Miriam Karlin as Winnie Smith
 * Josephine Woodford as Doris Smith
 * Joan Miller as Mrs. Smith-Gould
 * Miles Malleson as Rockeby
 * Eric Barker as bank manager
 * William Hartnell as Major Fowler, town councillor
 * Roy Kinnear as Fred Smith
 * Joan Hickson as Housewife
 * Kenneth Griffith as Reverend Owen Thomas
 * Mark Eden as Sir Geoffrey Despard
 * John Comer as butcher
 * Basil Dignam as prison governor
 * Franklin Engelmann as TV commentator
 * Colin Gordon as Prime Minister
 * Geoffrey Hibbert as Council Official
 * Joan Heal as disgruntled housewife
 * Ludovic Kennedy as himself
 * Margery Lawrence as quarrelling housewife
 * Harry Locke as shop steward
 * Henry Longhurst as deaf man
 * Malcolm Muggeridge as vleric
 * Derek Nimmo as Director-General's Assistant
 * Conrad Phillips as P.R.O.
 * Nicholas Phipps as Director-General
 * Cardew Robinson as tramp
 * Gerald Sim as store manager
 * Olive Sloane as Hhousewife
 * Marianne Stone as Miss Palmer
 * Elsie Wagstaff lady on Parish Council
 * Thorley Walters as Tranquilax executive
 * Ian Wilson as Salvation Army Major
 * George Woodbridge as Bishop
 * Drewe Henley as Doris's boy friend (uncredited)
 * Ed Devereaux as communication officer (uncredited)
 * John Junkin (uncredited)
 * Rodney Bewes (uncredited)
 * Steve Marriott (uncredited)

Release
The film premiered in London on 23 May 1963 at the Columbia Cinema in Shaftesbury Avenue (later the Curzon Soho).

Box office
It was one of the 12 most popular films in Britain in 1963.

Critical
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Way off target as a satire, the Boultings' latest effort is remarkable chiefly for the amount of schoolboy smut it manages to incorporate, and for the nastiness of its view of people. Buñuel castigates mankind because he is urgently concerned for it; Heavens Above! despises everybody just about equally, even its heroes. Matthew, the 'liberally' conceived coloured man, for example, is presented insultingly (through no fault of the actor) as one of those simpleminded, hymn-singing innocents with water-melon smiles. The whimsical ending; the crude caricaturing in most of the characterisation; the aimless lashing out at everything in sight; the sentimental imagery of an angelic child and a forlorn teddy-bear to point up Smallwood's message of charity and the barren ground in which it has fallen – all point to real desperation. Half-a-dozen funny lines, an excellent performance by Peter Sellers, and good ones from Isabel Jeans, Cecil Parker and Brock Peters, don't take the film very far"

The Times found it lacking the mild bite and satire of the Boulting-Sellers film I'm All Right Jack

Analysis
An article in Garden History likened the character of Smallwood to that of the 18th century picturesque guru William Gilpin: "The first act of the new reverend is to invite a group of colourful travellers to reside in the vicarage; the second is to convince an old lady to open her house and grounds to all sorts of poor vagabonds, scruffs and vagrants, characters who bring picturesque values to the noble scene. Eventually, a picturesque economic system based on free donation causes havoc in the village and the nation – the reverend is made a bishop and sent into space, in Britain's first spaceship. The film revives a character that one can safely imagine as a modern version of Doctor Syntax – cordial, dedicated, stubborn, fearless, not reacting against, but slightly diverging from, the established values of his culture."

title: Heavens Above!


text:
List of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute people

This is a list of people associated with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, including presidents, institute leaders, trustees, alumni, professors and researchers.

For a list of the highest elected student leaders at RPI see: List of RPI Grand Marshals.

Business

 * John J. Albright (1868), businessman and philanthropist
 * Marshall Brain, founder of HowStuffWorks.com
 * Gary Burrell, founder of Garmin
 * Dan Buckley (1991), president of Marvel Entertainment
 * George Lewis Capwell Cronin (1925), businessman and founder of the Ecuadorian baseball & soccer team Club Sport Emelec
 * Nicholas M. Donofrio (1967), director of research at IBM, trustee
 * Joseph Gerber (1947), founder of Gerber Scientific
 * William Gurley (1839), and Lewis E. Gurley, brothers and founders of Gurley Precision Instruments.
 * J. Erik Jonsson (1922), co-founder and former president of Texas Instruments Incorporated, and mayor of Dallas
 * William Mow (1959), founded apparel maker Bugle Boy in 1977.
 * Nicholas T. Pinchuk Chairman & CEO of Snap-on
 * Curtis Priem (1982), NVIDIA co-founder; architect of the first PC video processor and many that followed; trustee
 * Sean O’Sullivan (1985), along with three other RPI students (Laszlo Bardos, Andrew Dressel, and John Haller), founded MapInfo on the RPI campus
 * William Meaney President & CEO of Iron Mountain
 * John Rigas, co-founder of Adelphia Communications
 * Sheldon Roberts (1948), member of the "traitorous eight" who created Silicon Valley; co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Amelco
 * Bert Sutherland, manager of Sun Microsystems laboratories
 * William H. Wiley (1866), Civil War artillery commander, co-founder of publisher John Wiley and Sons, and US State Representative
 * Edward Zander, former CEO of Motorola
 * Keith Raniere, American felon, convicted sex trafficker and the founder of NXIVM, a multi-level marketing company and cult based near Albany, New York.

Humanities, arts, and social sciences

 * Felix Bernard, composer of a Christmas song, Winter Wonderland
 * Julie Berry, children's author
 * Charles Amos Cummings, architect and historian
 * Bobby Farrelly, film director, writer and producer, Dumb and Dumber, Shallow Hal, There's Something About Mary
 * Fitzedward Hall (1901), Orientalist
 * David Hayter, Canadian voice actor
 * Ned Herrmann, creator of the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument
 * Lily Hevesh, YouTuber and domino artist (attended RPI for less than a year before dropping out to pursue domino art full time)
 * Erin Hoffman, game designer and author
 * Tyler Hinman (2006), multiple winner of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
 * Joe Howard, Jr. (1857), reporter and war correspondent
 * Jennifer & Kevin McCoy (1994), artists who both graduated from RPI
 * Meera Nanda, writer, philosopher of science, and faculty Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
 * Luis Francisco Peraza (1985), television producer and executive, International Emmy winner
 * Mary Pride (1974), Christian author
 * Samuel Wells Williams, 19th century linguist
 * Warren Davis (1977), video game designer/programmer (co-creator of Q*bert)
 * Zachary Barth, video game designer (founder of Zachtronics), creator of Infiniminer

Invention and engineering

 * Truman H. Aldrich (1869), civil engineer, also briefly a US State Representative
 * Karthik Bala, co-founder of Vicarious Visions and Velan Studios
 * Garnet Baltimore (1881), first African-American engineer and Garnet D. Baltimore Lecture Series honoree
 * Peter Bohlin 1958, architect of the famous 5th Avenue Apple Store
 * Virgil Bogue (1868), chief engineer of Union Pacific Railroad and Western Maryland Railway constructions
 * Bimal Kumar Bose (1932), electrical engineer
 * Leffert L. Buck (1968), civil engineer and a pioneer in the use of steel arch bridge structures, including the Williamsburg Bridge in NYC
 * Alexander Cassatt (1859), civil engineer and railroad executive
 * George Hammell Cook (1839), state geologist of New Jersey
 * Dr. Allen B. Dumont (1924), perfected the cathode ray tube; the "father of modern TV"
 * Theodore N. Ely (1896), railroad executive
 * George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. (1881), inventor of the Ferris wheel
 * Lois Graham (1946), the first woman to receive an engineering degree from RPI, and the first woman in the U.S. to receive a PhD in mechanical engineering
 * Frederick Grinnell (1855), inventor of the modern fire sprinkler
 * Walter Lincoln Hawkins (1931), African-American inventor of plastic telephone wire
 * Beatrice Hicks (1965), co-founder of Society of Women Engineers
 * Henry Wilson Hodge (1885), Director of railroads for the American Expeditionary Force during World War I
 * Marcian Hoff (1958), "father of the microprocessor"
 * Dorothy Hoffman (1949), the first woman to serve as president of any scientific society in the US, elected president of American Vacuum Society in 1974
 * J. Christopher Jaffe (1949), leader in architectural acoustic design; taught acoustics at the Juilliard School, City University of New York, and Rensselaer
 * Theodore Judah (1837), visionary of the transcontinental railroad
 * Robert Loewy (1947), aeronautical engineer
 * William Metcalf (1858), steel manufacturing pioneer
 * Keith D. Millis (1938), metallurgical engineer and inventor of ductile iron
 * Ralph Peck (1937), geotechnical engineer
 * Emil H. Praeger (1915), designer of Shea and Dodger Stadiums, Tappan Zee Bridge, Arecibo Telescope and a renovation of the White House
 * George Brooke Roberts (1849), civil engineer, 5th president of the Pennsylvania Railroad
 * Washington Roebling (1857), chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge
 * Mortimer Rogoff (1943), first to patent an Electronic navigational chart and setup industry standards
 * James Salisbury (1844), physician and inventor of the Salisbury Steak
 * Steven Sasson (1973), engineer and inventor of the digital camera
 * Robert "RJ" Scaringe (2005), CEO & Founder of Rivian
 * Massood Tabib-Azar, chemical engineer
 * Raymond Tomlinson (1963), inventor of the email system
 * David L. Noble (1940), inventor of the floppy disk
 * Alan M. Voorhees (1947), city planner and traffic forecaster; former Rensselaer trustee; principal supporter for the Voorhees Computing Center at Rensselaer
 * John Alexander Low Waddell (1871), civil engineer and prolific bridge builder
 * Robert H. Widmer (1938), aeronautical engineer and designer of the B-58 supersonic bomber
 * John F. Schenck (1961), physician and co-inventor of the first clinically viable high-field MRI scanner at General Electric

Military

 * William L. Haskin (1861), U.S. Army brigadier general
 * Harold J. Greene (1980), major general, U.S. Army, highest ranking casualty of War in Afghanistan
 * Arthur L. McCullough, U.S. Air Force general
 * Ario Pardee Jr. (1858), Union Army veteran who attained the rank of brigadier general by brevet
 * L. Scott Rice (1980), major general, U.S. Air Force; commander of Massachusetts Air National Guard
 * Thomas R. Sargent III, vice admiral, U.S. Coast Guard; Vice Commandant 1970–1974
 * Walter L. Sharp, General, U.S. Army; Commander of United Nations Command, Commander of ROK-US Combined Forces Command and Commander of U.S. Forces Korea (2008–2011); former Director of the Joint Staff (2005–2008)
 * Franklin Guest Smith, Union Army veteran who attained the rank of brigadier general
 * Blake Wayne Van Leer, (1953), Commander and Captain in the U.S. Navy. Lead SeaBee program and lead the nuclear research and power unit at McMurdo Station during Operation Deep Freeze.
 * Peter D. Vroom (1862), Inspector General of the U.S. Army
 * Arthur E. Williams, lieutenant general, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Chief of Engineers in 1992
 * Ronald J. Zlatoper (1963), Chief of Naval Personnel; Battle Group Commander in Desert Storm and Desert Shield; former Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense; trustee
 * Christopher E. van Avery, Commander, U.S. Navy, geopolitical analyst and writer. Critic of and contributor to the U.S. military's current Principles of War.

Politics and public service

 * J. Frank Aldrich (1877), U.S. Representative from Illinois
 * Truman H. Aldrich (1869), U.S. Representative from Alabama (1896–1897)
 * Myles Brand (1964), president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association
 * William Beidelman, Union Army Second Lieutenant, Second Mayor of Easton, Pennsylvania
 * George R. Dennis, United States Senator from Maryland
 * Francis Collier Draper (1854), Toronto lawyer, Toronto Police Chief
 * Thomas Farrell (1912), Deputy Commanding General of the Manhattan Project
 * Nariman Farvardin (1983), Provost of the University of Maryland
 * Lincoln D. Faurer (1964), director of the National Security Agency and chief, Central Security Service, 1981–1985
 * Richard Franchot, U.S. Representative from New York (1861–1863)
 * Arthur J. Gajarsa (1962), Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, trustee
 * Naeem Gheriany, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Libya
 * Thomas J. Haas (1983), current president of Grand Valley State University
 * John Hammond, US Representative from New York, iron manufacturer
 * Walter F. Lineberger, U.S. State Representative of California, 1917–1921
 * Richard Linn (1965), Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
 * George Low, manager of NASA's Apollo 11 project; President of RPI (1976–1984); namesake of RPI's Low Center for Industrial Innovation
 * Hani Al-Mulki (MA, PhD), former Prime Minister of Jordan
 * John Olver (1958), Massachusetts State Representative (D) since 1991
 * Ely S. Parker, Civil War statesman, author of Appomattox Courthouse agreement
 * Clarkson Nott Potter (1843), U.S. Representative from New York, surveyor, lawyer, and president of the American Bar Association
 * Mark Shepard (1994), Vermont State Senator
 * Clement Hall Sinnickson, U.S. State Representative from New Jersey, 1875–1879
 * Peter G. Ten Eyck, New York State Representative
 * Tony Tether (1964), director of DARPA, 2001–2009
 * W. Aubrey Thomas, U.S. State Representative from Ohio, 1900–1911
 * De Volson Wood (1857), first president of the American Society for Engineering Education

Science and technology

 * David Adler (1956), physicist
 * Don L. Anderson (1955), geophysicist
 * James Curtis Booth (1832), chemist
 * James Cantor (1988), neuroscientist, sex researcher
 * Ronald Collé (1972), nuclear physicist at NIST
 * George Hammell Cook (1839), state geologist of New Jersey
 * Edgar Cortright (1949), former NASA official
 * Ebenezer Emmons (1826), geologist, author of Natural History of New York (1848) and American Geology
 * Asa Fitch (1827), entomologist
 * Alan Fowler (1951), physicist, NAS member
 * David Ferrucci (1994), computer scientist, developed IBM Watson AI Jeopardy player
 * Claire M. Fraser (1977), President and Director of The Institute for Genomic Research
 * Jeffrey M. Friedman, discovered leptin, a key hormone in the area of human obesity
 * Ivar Giaever (1964), shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics for discoveries on tunneling phenomena in semiconductors; Institute Professor of Science
 * Morton Gurtin (1955), mathematical physicist
 * James Hall (1832), geologist and paleontologist
 * Jon Hall (1977), Executive Director of Linux International
 * Peter E. Hart, group senior vice president of the Ricoh company; artificial intelligence innovator
 * Edward C. Harwood, economist
 * Hermann A. Haus (1951), optical communications researcher, pioneer of quantum optics
 * Eben Norton Horsford (1838), "father of food science" and author, discovered baking powder
 * Douglass Houghton (1829), Michigan's first state geologist; namesake of a Michigan city, county, and lake
 * Robert Kennicutt (1973), astronomer
 * Nimai Mukhopadhyay, physics
 * Richard Klein (1966), astronomer
 * David Korn (1965), computer programmer who created the Korn Shell
 * Richard Mastracchio (1987), NASA astronaut, flew on STS-106 Atlantis, 2000
 * Mark T. Maybury, Chief Scientist of U.S. Air Force
 * Pat Munday (1981), environmentalist
 * Heidi Jo Newberg (1987), professor of astrophysics at RPI
 * James "Kibo" Parry, satirist, Usenet personality, and typeface designer
 * Henry Augustus Rowland (1870), first president of the American Physical Society; Johns Hopkins University's first physics professor
 * Mark Russinovich, Windows software engineer
 * Peter Schwartz, futurist and writer
 * Robert C. Seacord, computer security specialist and author
 * Kip Siegel (1948), physicist, professor of physics at the University of Michigan
 * Andrew Sears, computer science professor at UMBC
 * Marlan Scully, physicist known for work in quantum optics
 * George Soper (1895), managing director of the American Society for the Control of Cancer, later the American Cancer Society
 * Chauncey Starr (1935), pioneer in nuclear energy
 * John L. Swigert Jr. (1965), astronaut, member of Apollo 13; recipient of 1970 Presidential Medal of Freedom; elected to U.S. House of Representatives for Colorado, 1982
 * Dennis Tito (1964), millionaire and the first space tourist to pay for his own ticket
 * Michael Tuomey (1835), state geologist of South Carolina and Alabama
 * Chris Welty (1995), computer scientist
 * Gregory R. Wiseman, NASA astronaut
 * Chris Wysopal, also known as Weld Pond (1987), member of the hacker think tank L0pht Heavy Industries, founder of Veracode

Sports

 * John Carter (1986), NHL forward 1986–1993
 * Kevin Constantine (1980), NHL head coach of the San Jose Sharks 1993–1995, the Pittsburgh Penguins 1997–2000, and the New Jersey Devils 2001–2002; recipient of USA Hockey's Distinguished Achievement Award
 * Erin Crocker (2003), NASCAR driver
 * Don Cutts (1974), NHL and International Hockey League (1945–2001) goaltender 1974–1984
 * Oren Eizenman (born 1985), Israeli-Canadian ice hockey player
 * Andrew Franks (2015), NFL placekicker for the Miami Dolphins since 2015.
 * Tim Friday (1985), NHL defenseman for the Detroit Red Wings 1985–1986
 * Ken Hammond (1985), NHL defenseman 1985–1993
 * Michael E. Herman (1962), President of the Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball 1992–2000
 * Joé Juneau (1991), NHL forward 1991–2004, selected to the 1993 NHL All-Rookie Team, top scorer at the 1992 Winter Olympics while playing for the Canadian Olympic hockey team
 * Jason Kasdorf (2016), NHL goalie for the Buffalo Sabres since 2016.
 * Neil Little (1994), NHL scout for the Philadelphia Flyers organization; Goaltending Coach for the Philadelphia Phantoms of the American Hockey League 2007–2008; AHL goaltender 1994–2005; won the '97–98 and '04-05 Calder Cup with the Philadelphia Phantoms; inducted into the Philadelphia Phantoms Hall of Fame in 2006
 * Andrew Lord (2008), professional ice hockey player
 * Mike McPhee (1982), NHL forward 1983–1994; won the '85–86 Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens; played in the 1989 NHL All Star Game
 * Matt Murley (2002), NHL forward 2003–2008
 * Kraig Nienhuis (1985), NHL forward 1985–1988
 * Adam Oates (1985), co-head coach of the New Jersey Devils 2014–2015; Head Coach of the Washington Capitals 2012–2014; Assistant Coach for the Tampa Bay Lightning 2009–2010 and the New Jersey Devils 2010–2012; NHL forward 1985–2004; played in the 1991–1994 and 1997 NHL All Star Games; inducted into the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame as a player in 2012
 * Matt Patricia (1996), Senior football advisor New England Patriots
 * Brian Pothier (2000), NHL defenseman 2000–2010
 * Daren Puppa (1985), NHL goaltender 1985–2000, played in the 1990 NHL All Star Game
 * Brad Tapper (2000), head coach of the Adirondack Thunder of the ECHL; NHL forward for the Atlanta Thrashers 2000–2003
 * Graeme Townshend (1989), head coach of the Jamaican Men's National Ice Hockey Team; Player Development Coordinator for the San Jose Sharks 2004–2008, NHL forward 1990–1994

Past

 * Sharon Anderson-Gold : Science and Technology Studies
 * George C. Baldwin (1967–1977) : Nuclear Engineering
 * Bimal Kumar Bose (1971–1976) : Electrical Engineering
 * George Hammell Cook (1842–1846) : senior professor, Geology
 * Richard DiPrima (1957–1984): Fluid dynamics
 * Amos Eaton (1824–1842) : first professor, Geology
 * Michael James Gaffey (1984–2001) : Planetary Science
 * Sorab K. Ghandhi (1963–1992): Electronic Materials, Microelectronics
 * Benjamin Franklin Greene (1846–1859) : third senior professor and first director of RPI
 * James Hall (1833–1850) : Geology and Chemistry
 * Granville Hicks (1929–1935) : English
 * Matthew A. Hunter : Metallurgy, first to isolate titanium metal
 * Annette Kolodny : English
 * Matthew Koss (1990–2000) : Physics
 * Edith Hirsch Luchins : Mathematics
 * James D. Meindl (1986–1993) : Microelectronics
 * Vincent Meunier (2010-2022) : Physics
 * Henry Bradford Nason : Chemistry
 * E. Bruce Nauman (1981–2009) : Chemical Engineering
 * Gina O'Connor (1988–2018) : Business
 * Pauline Oliveros : Music
 * Robert Resnick (1956–1993): Physics
 * George Rickey : Architecture
 * Neil Rolnick : Music, founder of iEAR
 * Henry Augustus Rowland (1870?–1876) : Physics
 * Lee Segel (1960–1973) : Mathematics
 * Stephen Van Rensselaer : founder of the institute
 * Robert H. Wentorf, Jr. : Chemical Engineering

Current

 * Robert A. Baron : Psychology
 * Laura K. Boyer : Science and Technology Studies
 * Selmer Bringsjord : Artificial Intelligence, Logic
 * Linnda R. Caporael : Science and Technology Studies
 * Jonathan Dordick : Biochemical Engineering
 * Evan Douglis: Architecture
 * Faye Duchin : Economics
 * Anna Dyson : Architecture
 * Ron Eglash : Science and Technology Studies
 * Peter Fox : Earth and Environmental Science, Computer Science, Cognitive Science
 * Ivar Giaever : Physics Professor Emeritus
 * Wayne D. Gray : Cognitive Science
 * James Hendler : Computer Science
 * Nikhil Koratkar : Nanotechnology
 * Robert J. Linhardt : Bioengineering
 * Deborah McGuinness : Computer Science
 * Don Millard : Electrical Engineering, Electronic Media
 * David Musser : Computer Science
 * Leik Myrabo : Spacecraft Propulsion
 * Satish Nambisan : Management
 * Heidi Jo Newberg : Astrophysics
 * Sal Restivo : Science and Technology Studies
 * David Rosowsky : Civil Engineering
 * Michael Shur : Semiconductor Electronics
 * Ron Sun : Cognitive Science
 * Boleslaw Szymanski : Computer Science
 * Jeff Trinkle : Computer Science
 * William A. Wallace : Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems
 * Langdon Winner : Science and Technology Studies
 * Houman Younessi : Systems Engineering (Hartford)
 * George Xu : Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear
 * Xi-Cheng Zhang : Physics and Terahertz Technology
 * Georges Belfort: Chemical and Biological Engineering


text:
User talk:Aysdfasdfa

Please stop adding that link to Student loan's external links section. It is an obvious advertising spam/site (which I assume you own). Comment by Rankler.

Welcome
Hello, , and welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. If you are stuck, and looking for help, please come to the Wikipedia Boot Camp, where experienced Wikipedians can answer any queries you have! Or, you can just type   on your user page, and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! By the way, you can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using three tildes, like this: ~~~. Four tildes (~~~~) produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome!-Splash 15:48, 12 July 2005 (UTC)
 * The Five Pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
 * Editing tutorial
 * Picture tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * Naming conventions
 * Manual of Style

title: User talk:Aysdfasdfa


text:
Robert J. Stevens

Robert J. Stevens (born 1951), is a retired executive chairman of Lockheed Martin. He was the chairman, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Lockheed Martin from 2004 until 2013, when Marillyn Hewson became CEO and president.

Early life and education
Stevens was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, in 1951. He attended and graduated summa cum laude from Slippery Rock University, and was later awarded the university's distinguished alumni award. He earned a Master of Science degree in engineering and management from the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University and, with a Fairchild Fellowship, a MBA from Columbia Business School in 1987. He is a graduate of the Department of Defense Systems Management College Program Management course and also served in the United States Marine Corps.

Career
On August 5, 2004, Stevens was elected chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin by its board of directors, succeeding Vance D. Coffman. He was elected chairman on April 28, 2005, retaining his previous responsibilities as president and CEO. Over the course of his tenure at Lockheed, Stevens held a variety of executive positions, including chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and head of strategic planning. On April 26, 2012, it was announced that he would be retiring in December 2012 with then president and COO Chris Kubasik being promoted to CEO effective January 1, 2013. However, in November 2012, an ethics violation forced Chris Kubasik to resign, effectively making Marillyn Hewson (then Executive Vice President, Electronic Systems) the new president and COO immediately, with her taking the helm as CEO in January 2013. Stevens was elected to remain as executive chairman through 2013.

In January 2012, he was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations and was chairman of the Director of National Intelligence Senior Advisory Group.

During 2001 and 2002, Stevens served on President Bush’s Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry. From 2002 to 2018, Stevens served as the lead director of the Monsanto Company and from 2015 to 2018 as a member of the board of directors of the United States Steel Corporation. He formerly served as a director for other foundations including the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation, the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, and the Atlantic Council. As of 2019, he serves on the board of directors for T. Rowe Price. He is a Fellow of the American Astronautical Society, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Royal Aeronautical Society, and the International Academy of Astronautics, and he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Awards
He has been recognized by the National Management Association as Executive of the Year, by Government Computer News as the Industry Executive of the Year, by the Partnership for Public Service with the Private Sector Council Leadership Award, and by the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation with the Globe and Anchor Award. In 2009, Stevens was considered one of "The TopGun CEOs" by Brendan Wood International, an advisory agency.

In 2010, he received the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s inaugural LeJeune Recognition for Exemplary Leadership, and in 2011 he was recognized by the National Defense Industrial Association with the James Forrestal Industry Leadership Award and inducted into the Washington Business Hall of Fame. In May 2012, Stevens was recognized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics with its highest honor, Honorary Fellow. In October 2012, he was presented the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Chairman’s Award, and in December 2012, Stevens became the 65th recipient of the National Aeronautic Association Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy, which is presented annually for “significant public service of enduring value to aviation in the United States.” In March 2013, he received the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation’s highest award, the Circle of Honor Award, and the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation’s Semper Fidelis Award, and in September 2014, he was awarded the Lone Sailor Award by the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation.

title: Robert J. Stevens


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Kas'Haran

 This page is an archive of the proposed deletion of the article below. Further comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or on a Votes for Undeletion nomination). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was DELETE. Postdlf 04:45, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

Kas%27Haran
Unencyclopedic, strange, and doesn't feature on google. BJAODN? MAdaXe 15:46, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Delete Appears to be patent nonsense. Dunc|☺ 20:53, 12 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, nonsense/hoax. Dcarrano 20:57, July 12, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete per above. Jaxl 22:29, 12 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete as per reasons stated above. Forbsey 22:47, 12 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete Nonsense. royblumy 00:05, 13 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete unverified/hoax. --Etacar11 01:12, 13 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete hoax. JamesBurns 09:54, 13 July 2005 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.


text:
1933–34 in Scottish football

The 1933–34 season was the 61st season of competitive football in Scotland and the 44th season of the Scottish Football League.

Scottish League Division One
Champions: Rangers

Relegated: Third Lanark, Cowdenbeath

Scottish League Division Two
Promoted: Albion Rovers, Dunfermline Athletic

Scottish Cup
Division One champions Rangers were winners of the Scottish Cup final after a 5–0 final win over St Mirren.

County
$$ – aggregate over two legs

Junior Cup
Benburb were winners of the Junior Cup after a 3–1 win over Bridgeton Waverley in the final.

Scotland national team
Key:
 * (H) = Home match
 * (A) = Away match
 * BHC = British Home Championship

title: 1933–34 in Scottish football


text:
Check Point

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. is an American-Israeli multinational provider of software and combined hardware and software products for IT security, including network security, endpoint security, cloud security, mobile security, data security and security management.

, the company has approximately 6,000 employees worldwide. Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel and San Carlos, California, the company has development centers in Israel and Belarus and previously held in the United States (ZoneAlarm), Sweden (former Protect Data development centre) following acquisitions of companies who owned these centers. The company has offices in over 70 locations worldwide including main offices in North America, 10 in the United States (including in San Carlos, California and Dallas, Texas), 4 in Canada (including Ottawa, Ontario) as well as in Europe (London, Paris, Munich, Madrid) and in Asia Pacific (Singapore, Japan, Bangalore, Sydney).

History
Check Point was established in Ramat Gan, Israel in 1993, by Gil Shwed (CEO ), Marius Nacht (Chairman ) and Shlomo Kramer (who left Check Point in 2003). Shwed had the initial idea for the company's core technology known as stateful inspection, which became the foundation for the company's first product, FireWall-1; soon afterwards they also developed one of the world's first VPN products, VPN-1. Shwed developed the idea while serving in the Unit 8200 of the Israel Defense Forces, where he worked on securing classified networks.

Initial funding of US$250,000 was provided by venture capital fund BRM Group.

In 1994 Check Point signed an OEM agreement with Sun Microsystems, followed by a distribution agreement with HP in 1995. The same year, the U.S. head office was established in Redwood City, California.

By February 1996, the company was named worldwide firewall market leader by IDC, with a market share of 40 percent. In June 1996 Check Point raised $67 million from its initial public offering on NASDAQ.

In 1998, Check Point established a partnership with Nokia, which bundled Check Point's Software with Nokia's computer Network Security Appliances.

In 2003, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Check Point over violation of the Securities Exchange Act by failing to disclose major financial information.

On 14 August 2003 Check Point opened its branch in India's capital, Delhi (with the legal name Check Point Software Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.). Eyal Desheh was the first director appointed in India.

During the first decade of the 21st century Check Point started acquiring other IT security companies, including Nokia's network security business unit in 2009.

In 2019, researchers at Check Point found a security breach in Xiaomi phone apps. The security flaw was reported preinstalled.

Check Point is presently focused on what it calls "fifth generation cyber security," or “Gen V.” It identifies the fifth generation as focused on large-scale and fast-moving attacks across mobile, cloud and on-premise networks that easily bypass the conventional, static detection-based defenses being used by most organizations today.

Over the years many employees who worked at Check Point have left to start their own software companies. These include Shlomo Kremer, who started Imperva; Nir Zuk, who founded Palo Alto Networks; Ruvi Kitov and Reuven Harrison of Tufin; Yonadav Leitersdorf, who founded Indeni; and Avi Shua, who founded Orca Security.

On 23 July 2020, Aryaka confirmed an alliance with Check Point Software Technologies to optimize the SD-WAN system operated by Aryaka Cloud-First, and Check Point CloudGuard Link and CloudGuard Edge to provide optimized protection and SD-WAN as-a-Service.

Acquisitions

 * MetaInfo, makers of the MetaIP DNS, DHCP, RADIUS, and LDAP management solution, in 1998 for $22 million in shares.
 * Zone Labs, makers of the ZoneAlarm personal firewall software, in 2003, for $205 million in cash and shares.
 * Protect Data, the holding company for PointSec Mobile Technologies, in a cash deal valued at $586m in late 2006. Prior to their acquisition by Check Point, Protect Data acquired Reflex Software.
 * NFR security, an intrusion prevention system developer, for $20 million in late 2006, following its failed plan to acquire the larger IPS vendor Sourcefire.
 * Nokia Security Appliances division was acquired in April 2009.
 * Liquid Machines, a data security startup company based in Boston, was acquired in June 2010.
 * Dynasec, a provider of enterprise governance, risk management, and compliance products, was acquired in November 2011. Dynasec offers a Web-based enterprise application, branded as Easy2comply, for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, Basel II compliance, operational risk management, information security management, HIPAA compliance, and internal audit management.
 * Hyperwise, an early-stage startup focused on CPU level threat prevention, was acquired Feb 2015.
 * Lacoon Mobile Security was acquired in April 2015.
 * Dome9 was acquired in October 2018.
 * ForceNock was acquired in January 2019
 * Cymplify was acquired in Dec. 2019
 * Protego Labs was acquired in Dec. 2019
 * Odo Security was acquired in Sep. 2020
 * Avanan was acquired in August 2021
 * Spectral was acquired in February 2022
 * Perimeter 81 was acquired in August 2023

In 2005, Check Point tried to acquire intrusion prevention system developers Sourcefire for $225 million, but later withdrew its offer after it became clear US authorities (specifically, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States ) would try to block the acquisition.

SofaWare legal battle
SofaWare Technologies was founded in 1999, as a cooperation between Check Point and SofaWare's founders, Adi Ruppin and Etay Bogner, with the purpose of extending Check Point from the enterprise market to the small business, consumer and branch office market. SofaWare's co-founder Adi Ruppin said that his company wanted to make the technology simple to use and affordable, and to lift the burden of security management from end users while adding some features. In 2001 SofaWare began selling firewall appliances under the SofaWare S-Box brand; in 2002 the company started selling the Safe@Office and Safe@Home line of security appliances, under the Check Point brand. By the fourth quarter of 2002 sales of SofaWare's Safe@Office firewall/VPN appliances had increased greatly, and SofaWare held the #1 revenue position in the worldwide firewall/VPN sub-$490 appliance market, with a 38% revenue market share.

Relations between Check Point and the SofaWare founders went sour after the company acquisition in 2002. In 2004 Etay Bogner, co-founder of SofaWare, sought court approval to file a shareholder derivative suit, claiming Check Point was not transferring funds to SofaWare as required for its use of SofaWare's products and technology. His derivative suit was ultimately successful, and Check Point was ordered to pay SofaWare 13 million shekels for breach of contract. In 2006 the Tel Aviv District Court Judge ruled that Bogner SofaWare could sue Check Point by proxy for $5.1 million in alleged damage to SofaWare. Bogner claimed that Check Point, which owned 60% of Sofaware, had behaved belligerently, and withheld monies due for use of SofaWare technology and products Check Point appealed the ruling, but lost.

In 2009 the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that a group of founders of SofaWare, which includes Bogner, had veto power over any decision of SofaWare. The court ruled that the three founders could exercise their veto power only as a group and by majority rule.

In 2011 Check Point settled all litigation relating to SofaWare. As part of the settlement it acquired the SofaWare shares held by Bogner and Ruppin, and began a process of acquiring the remaining shares, resulting in SofaWare becoming a wholly owned subsidiary.

title: Check Point