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Podium in San Sebastian

Alejandro Valverde always shows his best side in the Clasica San Sebastian, the only Spanish one day race included in the UCI World Tour. The Movistar Team rider has repeated the third place achieved last year, this time behind the Dutch Bauke Mollema (Trek Factory Racing) and the French Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal).

All three have topped the final climb to Murgil Bidea accompanied by Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), who has attacked at the beginning of this climb. Mollema has gone solo at the beginning of the descent and arrived seconds ahead Gallopin and Valverde.

San Sebastian is the last test before the Olympic Games in Rio. Valverde will leave for Brazil this Sunday with the whole Spanish team: Joaquim Rodriguez, Imanol Erviti, Ion Izaguirre and Jonathan Castroviejo. The event will be held this Saturday from 14:30 (Spanish time).

Quotes: “I’m happy with yet another podium. Mollema was really good in that finale; he went ahead before the downhill, and even though we started to cooperate behind, we didn’t got on with each other as we should. Plus, at the sprint, I was full of cramps – when I tried to launch the final acceleration, my legs were hurting too much to continue, and I could only keep Gallopin’s wheel for third. It happened the same to ‘Purito’ – it was a hot race and a very humid one, which happens to be a quite similar scenario to what we’ll find in Brazil. Finishing third here with the top guys keeps my hopes high for Rio. It’s a good route for us on the 6th; we will try to continue this way and hopefully chase a medal for our country.”

Photo: Movistar Team