Neo-pro Ilya Koshevoy (Lampre-Merida) confirmed that he is destined for a great future as a climber when he finished second in the first mountain stage of his first grand tour, the Vuelta a Espana.

"I was close to obtain an amazing result and to realize a dream: I'm very satisfied for having succeded in fighting for the victory, but of course I'm a bit sad for having found a stronger opponent," Koshevoy commented." I had a good day, my legs were good on the final climb too, so I could try some attacks wehre the road was more suitable for me. Unfortunately, Lindeman did not give up, even when he was in bad moments, and in the final kilometer he could make the winning attack.

"It's my first grand Tour, I'm a neo-professional so I'm disappointed I didn't win but I understand that you can't have everything and I'm happy with my second place. I will try to go into more breakaways and hope to have the fortune to win. I'm not good in sprints and the finale was not so steep but I just didn't have the legs. Of course I will try again.

"I would have liked to win to close the first week of the Vuelta in the best way after my teammates and I were present in all the breas. We fought as a team and we tried to honor the race and our sponsors, despite losing our captain Niemiec due to a nasty crash. "