Monte Carpegna performance "makes me very confident" says Mikel Landa

Mikel Landa showed glimpses of brilliancy this Tirreno-Adriatico, culminating with a very strong performance yesterday at Carpegna where he finished in third place and ascended to the podium of the overall classification which he's likely to seal today.

“I tried and I’m delighted with this stage’s result and moving onto the GC podium too. It was not easy for me as it was very cold today. We attacked in the first ascent because we knew that earlier we started tougher the race would be," Landa said after the stage.

Landa tried to make a move at the first descent of the Monte Carpegna, and then again at the base of the final ascent he was quick to explode the rest of the GC group, taking only Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar and Enric Mas with him. Alongside Damiano Caruso and Pello Bilbao, Bahrain have tried several times to attack the group using their strenght in numbers, and in the end they managed to place the Spaniard in the race podium just like last year.

"Pogacar is very strong and, when he accelerated, is out of this world. I ended last season, not in a good way and starting this new year like that is something that makes me very confident," he concluded.

Eyeing both Giro d'Italia and Tour de France later this year, Landa is showing good form and good signs ahead of his Grand Tour campaign here in Italy, battling it out with the best in the way he's done in the peak of his career, showing he's still got legs capable of big wins.