"I'm happy and disappointed at the same time."

Those were the words of Astana's Mikel Landa after stage two Giro del Trentino. Landa with his teammates Dario Cataldo and Diego Rosa were in the small group who escaped on the penultimate climb.

Land had a little hesitation when Richie Porte of Australia attacked with 4 km to go and so finished second 16s behind him. Cataldo finished seventh with a 43s gap to the stage winner.

Astana Pro Team has now two riders in the top five of the general classification. Landa is second 24s behind the new leader Porte and Cataldo is fourth with a 47s gap.

"Winning is hard, but if you are second behind a rider like Porte, it makes it a little less bitter," Landa said. "I'm always demanding and always want more, but I'm happy.

"Sky set the pace on the penultimate climb and we were down to 20 been 20-30 riders at the top. Nobody dared to attack until Porte went with 2-3km to go. I waited a bit to see if an AG2R rider like Pozzovivo, Bardet or Péraud would do something. They did not react. I accelerated too late and the gap was already too big."

The third stage has another summit finish. 

"It's also hard stage, but not as tough as today's I think. I will try to fight for the stage win again," he said.

Things have been turned around for Landa who suffered from cytomegalovirus in December but returned with a bang when he won a stage in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco.

"I had already forgot about the Giro. 'I'm going to take it easy. I do not know when I will return,' I said to a friend. And I thought about the Dauphiné. In just two weeks I started to feel good. I decided to ride in Catalunya and later I won in the Basque Country. The sensations are very good. I face the Giro with great enthusiasm," he said.

"I have two weeks that I will dedicate to doing long climbs. I have not yet had time to work on that. Then I need to rest and gather strength to face the Giro. I will train at home and will move to Ezcaray (La Rioja) and Cantabria," he explained

In the Giro, he will support Fabio Aru who missed the Giro del Trentino due to illness.

"I do not know much about him. Yes I know that he is annoyed. He suffers from a terrible  virus. Hopefully he will recover soon and will be in the Giro with us," he said.

He hopes that Astana can keep the WorldTour license. 

"It is clear that the riders are not to blame for this except for two brothers (the Iglinskiy brothers, ed.), and we are paying the price. Now it seems that the process takes longer time. All we want is that this story is over and that we can talk about the sport," he concluded.