Ivan Basso was a positive surprise in the Tour of Poland where he finished 8th and is now ready to continue his preparation for the Vuelta a Espana in the traditional warm-up race, the Vuelta a Burgos. Being more focused on the Spanish grand tour, the Italian is not focused on the results but hopes to see improvements from his most recent showing.

Ivan Basso missed out on his big season target at the Giro d'Italia and has now set his sights on the Vuelta a Espana. The first part of his preparation consisted of the Tour of Austria and a high-altitude training camp in San Pellegrino before he went on to produce a solid showing in last week's Tour de Pologne where he finished 8th overall.

The Italian plans to race a lot to get his diesel engine going for the Spanish grand tour and he is already ready to take on his next race in the Vuelta a Burgos which starts tomorrow. The mountainous race consists of four lumpy stages on the first four days and a big mountain stage to the top of the Lagunas De Neila climb on Sunday.

Having been encouraged by his recent performance, Basso hopes to see further improvement in Spain this week.

"The form improved and this means that what I did until today to prepare was good," he said. "In Burgos I hope to make a step forward. It's a tough race, the ideal race to test my legs. As in Poland, I won't care too much of the results. I know that to build a good result in a long stage race you can't expect the best results immediately. The Vuelta a Espana is not started yet, so the feelings are the most important. After the injury of the Giro, my goals was to recover, improve the form and feel happy. I achieved all of these and now I'm ready to face the Spanish challenges".

Basso will be supported by climbers Jose Sarmiento, Cameron Wurf and Cristiano Salerno who were all an integral part of his success in Poland while Lucas Haedo and Daniele Ratto will be on hand to contest the sprints. The latter should find the many short finishing climbs to his liking. The roster is completed by Paolo Longo Borghini and Federico Canuti.

After the Spanish race, Basso will go to recon the Angliru climb before participating in another high-altitude camp in San Pellegrino from August 13 to 20.

Starting at 15.30 each day, you can follow the Vuelta a Burgos on CyclingQuotes.com/live. You can read a thorough race preview here.