Jonathan Vaughters describes Rigoberto Urán's virtue: "He has turned a small engine into podiums"

It is admirable about Rigoberto Urán that he has been in the top ten of the grand tours for years, even when the level rises each season and he ages more. To understand the reason for this, his boss, Jonathan Vaughters, explained what has been the key to maintaining such regularity.

"He is an interesting cyclist, because if you put him in a laboratory and test him, you realize that he is not such a strong rider," Vaughters revealed in an interesting dialogue on the broadcast of the sixth stage of the Giro d'Italia. "He doesn't have a great VO2 max or those things that are talked about so much about the best."

His virtue is in the psychological. "But he never gets stressed, he saves a lot of energy because he doesn't get stressed," said the man in charge of the EF Education-EasyPost team, who sees how his leader never gets eaten up by adverse situations. “He's turned a small engine into podium finishes in the grand tours,” he praised.

In fact, he experienced an unexpected blow yesterday after losing more than a minute due to falls at the end. “I don't think it affected him much,” the 49-year old said.

And that's because it's a loss that doesn't dethrone him from his goal in this Corsa Rosa. "Rigo is looking to finish in the top-10 and I don't think a minute is the difference between being sixth or seventh," added Vaughters, who hopes this Giro d'Italia is yet another demonstration of validity of his words.

Rigoberto Urán currently sits 24th in the GC, 3:34 down to current leader Andreas Leknessund, and 28 seconds less behind Remco Evenepoel - best placed GC favourite.