For the sixth time in his career, Alejandro Valverde finished on the podium in the Vuelta a Espana. The Spaniard is convinced that he could had done even better if he had his teammate Nairo Quintana at his side.

On the podium from start to finish, Movistar Team completed a great appearance in the 2014 Vuelta a España, beginning with a resounding win in the Jerez de la Frontera TTT and ultimately claiming the stage victory with Adriano Malori in Santiago and stepping onto the third step of the overall podium with Alejandro Valverde, just behind Contador (TCS) and Froome (SKY).

The Spanish rider, 32nd quickest in today's closing epilogue in Santiago de Compostela as Malori avoided rain falling during the last two hours, claimed stage success in Cumbres Verdes (6th) en route to a landmark 6th podium finish - third in a row - in the Spanish grand tour, which he won in 2009 and finished in 2nd ('08, '12) and 3rd ('03, '13). After withdrawing from the race in his first appearance (2002), Valverde made the GC's top five in all his eight finishes.  

Valverde's third place means the Movistar Team has made the podium in five of the last seven Grand Tours, after Valverde's last two Vueltas a España and Nairo Quintana's second in the 2013 Tour and first in the 2014 Giro he brilliantly conquered. The Colombian's abandonment was the negative foot note on the Blues' achievement, forced to undergo surgery aftet two consecutive crashes and leaving the whole team down before they bounced back supporting Valverde's hopes to finish on the podium of a GT again. The Movistar Team stays firmly on top of the WorldTour standings.

"I'm really satisfied with this third place and my performance in the last three weeks," Valverde said. "Save for misfortune with Nairo's crash, the team was superb. I think having Nairo with us during the second part of the race would have changed things and made the race different for us. Still, I think this podium is a fair prize to all the work we did - we also claimed three stage wins, which is prestigious and important.

"It's yet another podium finish for me in the Vuelta - already six since I became a pro. I don't think this hasn't been done many times before and I'm really happy.

"My season has been really consistent: I won races right from the beginning in Andalusia, I was there in the classics, the Tour... but despite all of that, I don't feel tired. Contrary to what usually happens, every seasons seems to me like shorter than the previous ones, more than when I was younger. I'm still excited about the sport, the racing, willing to give my best in what's left this season, with two beautiful goals in the Worlds and Lombardy."

"To me, this race's balance looks more than satisfactory, especially taking into account we lost Nairo halfway through the Vuelta," manage Eusebio Unzue said. "Leaving Galicia with three stage wins, including Malori's icing on the top with today's success, and fulfilling the goal of stepping onto the overall podium, is really nice - we just came across the two best stage racing talents of the WorldTour peloton, and despite that, Alejandro contested the 2nd place right until yesterday.

"Neither Contador nor Froome looked unbeatable. Actucally, they weren't superior to their competition, but we must concede they did things better than us. To be honest, and apart from Malori's stage win today, we were less brilliant in the final week, but I think that was also a consequence of the strong, brilliant work we did in the opening ten stages.

"Having Nairo out of the race, I'm sure that deprived us of more victories since, even after his crash in the TT, he'd have been extremely important for Alejandro to close those 'gaps' that kept him out of contention in stages that he would otherwise have won easily.

"Yet, we must stay really happy with what we got and especially with Alejandro: after all the energy he spent throughout the season and mostly in the Tour, he charged again with responsibilty and made all his team-mates' work count. We've spent already four years under Movistar's sponsorship, but fortunately and thanks to Telefónica, we can now say we're making history, and we also feel that by the support we receive on the roads."