Alunderis made the headlines when he wore the maglia rosa for four days in the Giro d'Italia two years ago, but remained anonymous since. We had heard he trained well last winter and was ready to take the next step and now, at the age of 24, all that training paid off.

Ahead of the final, the queen stage of Oro y Paz, he had already made his way into the top 10 in the general classification. Under the flamme rouge he launched his final attack from the group of favourites. Too soon, as it turned out, he was overhauled by two riders before he reached the finish line. Which is still a great result and he did cause a split with his attack and was able to move up into 6th in the final classification.

He was very happy after the race. “Stage 5 was really tough, I lost 2 minutes in that brutal finale. But I knew the steady climb on the last stage would suit me better. Maybe I attacked too soon considering the gradients, but I saw some other GC riders were struggling and tried to distance them with my attack. 3rd was a great result and I'm happy for Abdessabour, we started out together and have commiserated each other often over the years. For him to win makes me believe I'll be able to as well. Oro y Paz so early in the season was a bit of a make or break situation, it worked out even better than I hoped and now I'm extremely motivated for the rest of the season.�

Alunderis scored 97 points with his performance, that alone may be enough for a GP growth at the end of the season – being a contract year, this would prove valuable.