David Arroyo proved that he is ready for one of his season highlights by finishing 9th in today's PG Miguel Indurain. Admitting the superiority of Alejandro Valverde, the former Giro runner-up was proud of an aggressive an animated team performance from the Caja Rural team.

For Caja Rural, the big season highlights are the Vuelta a Espana, Volta a Catalunya and Vuelta al Pais Vasco and so the team's main riders have all tried to reach peak condition for this time of the year. One of them is the team's GC rider David Arroyo who was riding well in Catalonia where he was sitting in the top 10 until he abandoned on the final day.

Today he proved that he is ready for his next big race, the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, when he finished 9th in the traditional warm-up race, GP MIguel Indurain. The Spaniard was unable to follow eventual winner Alejandro Valverde, Tom-Jelte Slagter and Yury Trofimov when they bridged across to an earlier break but he was one of the best of the rest, crossing the line in 9th.

Caja Rural rode an animated race as they put three riders, Angel Madrazo, Heinier Parra and Antonio Molina in the early break and when those three riders fell off the pace, they took responsibility for the chase. Despite not coming away with the win, Arroyo was pleased with the team performance that bodes well for the upcoming race in the Basque Country.

"I felt good and I am happy," he said. "I come here after a few days off after the Volta a Catalunya and have maybe lost a bit of strength. It  always costs you but I must be happy with the good race done by my team.

"I could not ask for more from my teammates. We were always in the race. We paid attention to splits, we chased in the peloton, we set a good standard and we have shown that we are on the right way.

"Maybe there is a bit of regret not to have finished better but now we are looking forwards of an important week. We have an extra bit of motivation and hopefully we will do well. When you are up against a great rider like Alejandro in great conditon, you can only  congratulate him."

Arroyo will share the leadership role in Pais Vasco with Luis Leon Sanchez who was 17th in today's race. The line-up is completed by Amets Txurruka, Antonio Piedra, Angel Madrazo, Omar Fraile, Ruben Fernandez, and Fabricio Ferrari.