Miguel Ángel López: "I am still far from my best form"

Miguel Ángel López has tested his legs today at the Tour of the Alps with a daredevil attack on the opening climb of the day, where he looked to go all-or-nothing for the overall classification in a move that in the end proved unsuccessful.

“Today I had nothing to lose and as we knew it was going to be an explosive start, I decided to follow attacks and try to do something," Lopez said in a post-race interview. "I am still far from my best form and in the end I paid a toll for the work I did in the break."

Together with teammate Vadim Pronskiy, Lopez has started off the stage in aggressive fashion, actually putting under pressure the teams with the collective strenght in Bahrain - Victorious and INEOS Grenadiers. After attacking on the Passo Rolle, López was in a threatening position for the overall contenders, however the ascent of the Passo Mendola revealed that the Colombian was still far from his best form.

"I think it was a good stage for me. I've done a lot of work and needed to get back into the groove after a long break and the training camp at altitude we just finished on Teide," he concluded. He ended up switching off from the race after being caught, and came home over 13 minutes behind stage winner Pello Bilbao.

López nevertheless earned his place at the podium at the end of the stage as he is the new leader of the intermediate sprints classification, and in the coming days he will have the freedom to hunt for stage wins - besides priming his form for the Giro d'Italia.