Maxime Bouet (Ag2r) fought valiantly to keep his overall lead in today's final stage of the Giro del Trentino but in the end he had to surrender to a formidable Vincenzo Nibali (Astana). Having just come back from an injury, the Frenchman was, however, very happy to obtain the biggest result of the career with an overall 3rd place.

Maxime Bouet intended to ride the Giro del Trentino in a support role for defending champion Domenico Pozzovivo but suddenly the Frenchman was in the headlines after a stage victory on the opening half-stage of the four-day race. With the Ag2r rider known as a strong climber, the major favourites faced a difficult task of annihilating his lead of more than 7 minutes.

Bouet started today's final stage finishing atop the steep Sega di Ala climb 3.57 ahead of Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) but as soon as the Astana team upped the tempo at the bottom of the climb, he was see struggling at the bottom of the climb. When Paolo Tiralongo upped the pace even further, the Frenchman had to let his major rivals go and in the end his advantage proved not be big enough. Instead of taking the biggest win of his career, he had to settle for 3rd 55 seconds behind Nibali.

Even though he felt some kind of disappointment, he managed to keep his brilliant performance in perspective.

"I’m a little bit disappointed because I think I could have won but we don’t have to forget that I had a seven minute advantage after the first stage and we have to put this result in perspective," he said. "This 3rd place is a bit a victory after a week without training due to an injury. Eight days ago I was not in good spirits and I come back from this Giro del Trentino with a stage win and a podium overall. It’s a great satisfaction for me. I have obtained many top 10 results since the beginning of the season and this is the culmination."

Bouet enjoyed his time in the spotlight and got plenty of recognition for his performance both from inside and outside the peloton.

"I want to thank all those who supported me," he said." I couldn’t answer everyone but I read all messages and I was really touched by these encouragements. During the race, several important riders came to congratulate me and that’s something that I enjoyed."

Bouet now turns his attention to the Tour de Romandie which starts on Tuesday. The mountainous race should suit the Frenchman and he will be part of an immensely strong line-up consisting of the likes of Carlos Betancur, Rinaldo Nocentini, Hubert Dupont, John Gadret and Jena-Christophe Peraud.

"My next goal is to achieve a good result on the Tour de Romandie," he said. "Ag2l-La Mondiale will line up a very good team and we are able to put two riders in the top 10 and why not one on the podium."

Starting on Tueday, you can follow all the action from Romandie on CyclingQuotes.com/live.