Julien Simon (Cofidis) was left frustrated in today's stage of the Vuelta a Espana. Having joined the right breakaway alongside teammate Yoann Bagot, he won the sprint for second behind Nelson Oliveira.

"It battled for a long while," he said. We were well placed with Yoann, we gave everything. I had pinned down this stage and I delivered. Going into the break was the hardest part. There was only the finale to look forward to.

"At the start, we didn't work too well together but in the end it work out fine. Everybody knew that there was a stage win at the end. But Oliveira was amazing.

"I have some regrets because I won the sprint for second place as I had missed out on all my sprints so far. It came close. But he jumped at the right moment and he made a gap in the descent. It was a great performance, you can't take that away from him.

"Now we have three days in the mountains. I'm going to go into the autobus and go for a stage win next week."