"I actually didn't feel that great" - Cian Uijtdebroeks hangs on with the best in Arinsal but hopes to improve further

20-year old Cian Uijtdebroeks is on his Grand Tour debut, but he is already testing himself for the overall classification. On the first summit finish to Arinsal he was well present in the GC favourites' group.

“This gives confidence for my ambition to finish in the top 10. Of course it was hard, but in the end it was not too bad. I'm still missing a little punch," Uijtdebroeks told Het Nieuwsblad. "The pace was good. Now it kind of depends on how I can recover. Hopefully I will get better every day. Especially uphill I gained confidence.”

Last year's Tour de l'Avenir winner has spent the season working on his ability on the stage-races and built up towards the Vuelta. Top10 results at the Volta a Catalunya, Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse saw a consistent Uijtdebroeks and now in Spain he is looking just as good.

He didn't feel that way however, he admits: “I actually didn't feel that great and was a bit afraid of it. I started to have some doubts because I haven't raced in two months. I thought maybe I needed to get into the rhythm a bit more. I did suffer for a while and started to wonder if the level wasn't too high after all. In the end it all worked out and I felt that my legs came loose on Sunday.”

On the final climb this Monday there were a few attacks, but the Belgian followed in the main GC group the whole way. Aleksandr Vlasov joined him as both BORA - hansgrohe riders finished in the front group and have climbed up in the overall classification.

“It went faster and faster and there was a threat of a gap, but when Kuss and Soler started to pick up the pace, that suited me," he explains. "I don't really like those tempo changes, speeding up, slowing down… The fact that they picked up the speed and kept it up was perfect for me. My sprint is not that explosive. I don't have that punch yet. I was there and I am very happy about that.”