Pello Bilbao beams despite missing out on victory at Volta a Comunitat Valenciana: "When a teammate wins, second place is good"

The second stage of the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana was a real exhibition of Bahrain - Victorious. In the first test for the men of the final general classification, Colombian Santiago Buitrago was the strongest, taking 9 seconds from his teammate Pello Bilbao at the finish line.

Both were ahead of riders like Joao Almeida, Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda, Thymen Arensman, Ivan Sosa, Brandon McNulty and Carlos Rodriguez. It also helps them to get closer to the leader of the provisional general classification, Mathias Vacek, who keeps the jersey by taking advantage of the great team time trial of Lidl-Trek on the first day.

After the finish, Pello spoke to the race microphones about his feelings during the day. He regretted not being able to follow Buitrago, but settled for second place behind his teammate: "I knew we were going to have the strongest team today, Santi was very aggressive from the previous climb, I saw that we had an advantage, that we were four riders in the front group, we needed to move, anticipate, I saw the opportunity and I took 20 seconds quickly and then I kept the pace until the end. Then we saw a wonderful Santi, I couldn't follow him, when a teammate is the one who wins the second place is good," said the 34-year-old rider.