Santiago Buitrago capped off a good week for Team Bahrain Victorious at the Saudi Tour by placing third in the GC while securing the Best Young Rider classification.
The five-stage race in the AlUla region of Saudi Arabia saw Bahrain Victorious finish on the podium on four stages, including one stage win from Jonathan Milan.
Buitrago commented on his first race of the season: “I’m really happy with my first race of the season and very happy with the third place in the general classification. Today was a very fast day, and I was feeling good. The final was very tricky, starting with the last corner and a climb very fast. I’m very happy with the job the whole team put in this stage as well as the whole week.”
Milan is optimistic about his form following his great performance in Saudi. He said: “It was five fantastic days, our goal was to finish on the podium with Santi, and we made it. This is the fantastic beginning of the season, and it really means a lot to us. We started well in Australia and continue now here. We showed that we are really competitive and have a very strong team. I’m super happy about my result and the team’s result as well, and looking forward to the next race.”
Sports director Enrico Poitschke was pleased with the performance of his young line-up. He said: “We can be happy with the whole Tour. We won a stage, and we were on the podium on all but one stage, and we got third place in the GC with a very young team. The whole team did a very good job to achieve those results.
“We saw that the guys are on a very good level and that the work at the last training camps paid out. We can comfortably anticipate upcoming races. The whole team did the job as they were asked, and from that point, it was a nice week.”
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