Once more, Movistar Team played a massive role in the day's trophy in the Challenge a Mallorca. The squad directed today by José Luis Jaimerena and José Luis Arrieta relentlessly seeked for the victory and was about to chase it thanks to Xavi Tondo's performance.

The Catalan rider, who was returning into competition after his crash in the Tour de San Luis, came in 3rd place to the finish of the Trofeo Inca, the third race in the Balearic series over 166 kilometers which included the ascents to the cols of Soller (Cat. 2) and Puigmajor (Cat. 1) in the second part of the route. Tondo attacked in the final kilometer of the last climb along with Arkaitz Durán (GEO) and Belgian Ben Hermans (RSH), the winner of the day after the trio rode together for the last 40km of the stage. Movistar Team thus took to fruition the gamble for the options by their leader, as they took responsibility on the group chasing a group of four escapees that gained nearly 10 minutes of advantage.

Despite the bitter taste from his third place, Tondo showered his teammates with his praise: “I’m happy, since after the crash in Argentina I had to stop for a few days and I was feeling doubftul. I’m feeling myself really good now and this is important, but the most important thing today for me is the work by the squad. Seeing how the team was working encouraged me, we gave an impression of such a big team we are and it all was a demonstration of confidence towards a leader, me myself in this case, but any other one in other races. Hermans attacked in the last kilometers of the climb and we steadily built a gap. We knew he was the fastest, but there wasn’t a place to challenge him either.”