Astana's Samuele Battistella is 7th at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana stage 1

ASTANA. KAZINFORM Italian rider of Astana Qazaqstan Team Samuele Battistella started his season with the 7th place at the opening stage of the team’s first Europenian race of the year – Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Kazinform reports citing the team's press office.

Hilly stage with overcoming of two categorized climbs started today in Orihuela and finished in the center of Altea with the bunch sprint after 189,4 km of racing.

«We worked very well today, we passed the climbs on full gas with Crisitan Scaroni and David de la Cruz to try to put some gap between us and the pure sprinters. Finally, we did a good job until the finish line, where Scaroni and Luis Leon Sanchez helped me very well for the final sprint. Unfortunately, I was not at the best position to achieve a podium, but I tried to do my best during today’s sprint. I want to say thanks to all my teammates for a great job and I think it’s not a bad start for my season,»| commented Samuele Battistella.

Photo: www.astana-qazaqstan.com