Nairo Quintana (Movistar) sent a strong message to his potential Tour of Spain rivals by winning for the second consecutive time at Lagunas de Neila and consequently taking the leaders jersey at the Vuelta a Burgos. The Columbian climber succeeded in taking the victory based on the strong work accomplished by his team throughout the queen stage.

Twenty-four hours after winning the second stage, IAM Cycling took a decent 15th place with Johann Tschopp finishing 1’53” behind Quintana, and now sits 14th overall, 2’04” back.

After his stage, Tschopp, who comes from the Valais region in Switzerland, was happy with his performance.

“I struggled at the foot of the climb, but then I managed to get into my rhythm. I passed a fair number of riders in the final. The sensations are good considering my lack of recent competition. I expect to be able to ramp it up over the next days and then I’ll be right on track. This bodes well for the Vuelta where I’d definitely like to win a stage. And I wouldn’t like to start the race already burnt out,” he said to the IAM webpage.  

Directeur sportif for the Swiss Pro Continental team, Marcello Albasini analyzed the race with his usual lucidity.

“There was nothing we could do against Quintana and Movistar. The Spanish team was superior and controlled the stage as it has done since the start of the race. For our part, the guys all did their work well. Johann Tschopp managed to fulfill his task for the day even though his 15th place is nothing really spectacular. He returned to competition for Burgos after a break of six weeks in order to be on top form for the Tour of Spain. Jonathan Fumeaux unfortunately was hit with the hunger knock on the final climb. We were not in a winning position. In fact, we were already considering how to keep Matteo Pelucchi within the time delay with our thoughts more on Saturday’s stage.”