The Belkin Pro Cycling Team had to swallow another setback during the Vuelta a España stage 15 yesterday. Graeme Brown paid for his efforts a day earlier – when he worked to get and stay in a break – and had to abandon.

“It was a big fight to get in the break, but with a jump, I made my way into it,” Juanma Garate explained. “The collaboration wasn’t very good, however. There were many attacks. When a few riders pulled away and quickly gathered a nice lead, I knew it was going to be hard to win.”

Bauke Mollema also tried to claw his way into the break but he wasn’t able to do so.

“I tried to get in the break but unfortunately, I didn’t make it. When I saw the break was going to stay away I tried to save as much energy as possible. I still feel pretty good, even if today was very long and hard,” he said.

Robert Wagner experienced the tough side of professional cycling on Sunday’s challenging stage and was eventually compelled to abandon.

“It was a terrible day,” he said. “The start was very fast and I was quickly dropped. It's a miracle that I made my way back into the bunch. I found it very difficult to get into my rhythm after yesterday. I’ve had quite an experience here, and already this morning I felt I was going to have a lot of pain on the bike. I'm glad I survived today, although I don’t exactly know how I managed to do so!”