It had to be all about the Froome-Contador battle in this year's Vuelta Andalucia edition, but it couldn't remain unnoticed that young Ag2r-La Mondiale captain Romain Bardet emerged as the best of the rest in the mountains. The French rider climbed atop the Alto de Hazallanas just after the unattainable duo and could have finished much higher than eight on the Allanadas in the following day, hadn't he suffered a badly timed puncture at the bottom of the final ascent.

Bad luck - which Bardet managed to avoid in the opening stage of the Andalusian event and which left many big names like Peraud, Mollema or Kelderman empty-handed – struck him back on Saturday and deprived of a possibility to finish the race on the podium. Nonetheless, the 24-year old Frenchman enjoyed an opportunity to test himself against the best climbers of the professional peloton and regarded it's outcome as a huge confidence boost for the latter part of the 2015 season.

“On Saturday [stage three] to Allanadas I was feeling much better than when I finished third [on Friday],” Bardet told Cyclingnews before the final day’s racing. “I felt better and I’m improving day-by-day, I’m very happy to be in good shape.”

“It would have been possible to get on the final podium without that puncture, but I have no regrets, Froome and Contador are racing really impressively.”

“Without that puncture, Romain could have maybe made it onto the final podium overall, to have had him standing alongside Contador and Froome would have been a nice photo,” AG2R La Mondiale sports director Julien Jurdie confirmed while talking to Cyclingnews on Sunday.

Despite a really impressive showing in Andalusian mountains, Bardet claims to be yet to reach his top disposition, having upcoming season's objectives in mind. The Ag2r-La Mondiale captain will race the Paris-Nice as his next event, and even though the route doesn't suit his characteristics, he wisely regards it a good preparation for what awaits him in this year's Tour de France. Next he will line-up Volta a Catalunya and the Ardennes classics, this time with much bigger ambitions.

“I still have to work and improve my form, I’m not at 100 per cent right now but this has been a very good race for the upcoming goals. I wanted to finish inside the top five, and afterwards I saw the podium was possible, but that puncture wasn’t helpful.”

“It doesn’t suit me very well, there are two time trials. But it’s a good test for the Tour de France, because there are the flat stages first” - like the Tour’s first week - “some crosswinds and so on. So it’s good, but Catalunya is my biggest goal before the Classics.”