Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) began his 2015 season with a victory on Saturday at the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana, the third leg of the Challenge Mallorca, and the 34-year-old stated afterwards that he is improving with age.

“The older I get, the better I am,” Valverde said afterwards, according to AS. “The truth is that I’m very happy and I feel very good. The winter went very well for me and now I want to gather the fruits of that work.”

Part of an early break of 26 riders, Valverde set off alone with over 30 kilometers of Saturday’s race remaining and he soloed on to victory 1:23 ahead of Tim Wellens (Lotto-Belisol), while Sky’s Leopold Konig took third.

Valverde already had a second place finish in Friday’s Trofeo Andratx behind Steve Cummings (MTN-Qhubeka), who managed to hold him off on the final climb up the Mirador d'Es Colomer. The Movistar team had spent much of that race controlling the pace of the peloton, but on Saturday the Spanish squad opted to quickly go on the offensive.

Valverde’s teammates Jesus Herrada, Javier Moreno and Francisco Ventoso helped to force the initial 26-man break 40 kilometers into the race, and the Spaniard finished off their hard work in the finale. It was the third time that Valverde has won a leg of his opening race of the year in the four seasons since he returned from a doping ban in 2012.

“Yesterday we worked more and didn’t get the win. Today, maybe we worked a little less, but we’ve been rewarded.”