Daniel Moreno won two stages, wore the red leader's jersey for one day and finished 10th overall in the Vuelta a Espana but that's not enough to satisfy his Katusha team. According to R-Sport, Katusha had expected more from the Fleche Wallonne winner who was actually designated to carry the burden of being team leader.

It's no secret that Katusha is a highly ambitious team and with a star-studded line-up, the team had legitimate expectations for the Vuelta a Espana. The team did well by winning three stages and having the leader's jersey for one day while Joaquim Rodriguez and Daniel Moreno finished 4th and 10th respectively.

While the team claimed that Rodriguez was the team leader, sports director Dmitri Konyshev now reveals that the team had actually expected Daniel Moreno to carry the team leadership. With Rodriguez feeling fatigued after a 3rd place finish in the Tour de France, Moreno got a rare chance to chase personal results.

He did well in the first part of the race by winning stages 3 and 9 and even took the leader's jersey at the end of the latter. People started wondering whether Moreno may actually go on to contest the overall win.

Those speculations were silenced when Moreno faded on the steep Alto de la Hazallanas one day later and from then, he played his usual support role for Rodriguez who took his own stage win on Alto de Naranco two days before the end of the race. Despite the race being Moreno's most successful grand tour ever, Konyshev expresses his dissatisfaction in an interview with R-Sport.

"When he became race leader, Moreno was doing very well but after that something changed," he said. We had staked everything on him as Joaquim Rodriguez was not in top form and last season Moreno finished fifth despite sacrificing a lot for his leader. Honestly, we are disappointed because we expected a lot from him."

Moreno finished 10th, 13.11 behind winner Chris Horner.