Aleksandr Vlasov: "This was a good race overall for us"

Russian Aleksandr Vlasov has been having a very strong start to the season, which has this past weekend taken another strong step as he finished third at Itzulia Basque Country.

"Today I tried to do my best to take the stage win and hoped that I would move up in the GC as a result. I know the finishing straight pretty well, so I tried to get myself into the best position, and we almost managed to pull off the win. In the end, however, I still made it onto the podium with third place overall, so I think this was a good race overall for us," Vlasov said after the finish of the queen stage.

After a consistent performance throughout the week, Vlasov entered the final stage in a good position in the overall classification and made a bid for the win. In the final climb to the Santuario de Arrate he attacked several times, however he could not distance some of his main rivals. Having distanced race leader Remco Evenepoel though, Vlasov managed to hop on the podium.

"I started the year really well with a win in Valencia, second at GP Indurain, and now a podium here, so this provides a lot of motivation for my next races. I'd also like to thank my teammates for the amazing job they did here," he concluded. Vlasov will now the last two Ardennes classics and then move on to the Tour de Romandie where he will finish his sprint campaign.