Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren) finished third behind Remco Evenpole (Detunink-Quick Step) and George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) on Thursday's third stage of the Vuelta a Burgos, the Picon Blanco.

Landa stayed with the remaining group of winners on the final decisive climb and chose to ride at his own pace when Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) attacked twice late in the race, but then steadily broke away from the rest of the pack and Evenporel finished 32 seconds behind the winner.

Landa, who won this race in 2017 and has won both Lagunas de Neira and Picon Blanco, praised the team's solid work in pulling back a series of late echelons after the wind suddenly increased in the final hour.

He also predicted that he would be back in the fray for Saturday's showdown in Lagunas de Neira.

"I'm happy," he said. I think it was a hard stage and the wind surprised me, but the team responded very well. We came third today, so that's good."

Landa said he expects more fireworks on Saturday, given the common format of Thursday's stage. He concluded, "It may be shorter, more explosive, but we're going to try, too."

Asked about Landa's performance on stage 3, Bahrain McLaren's Directeur Sportif Tim Harris told Cycling News, "He's not a good rider. He just rode within himself rather than following them. Of course, he knows that climb inside out.

Regarding the point at which the group broke apart, Harris said, "At one point the wind went up from minute to minute like crazy, and suddenly the whole peloton started to break apart."

"There were a lot of riders on Ineos and Beulah, but we didn't panic, we ran to keep the group together. That was a decisive moment, but as often happens in Spain, everyone was concerned about the climb and then the wind split us apart.

On the Picon Blanco itself, Harris said it was a proper test in the first mountain of the new season and a good indicator of Landa's ability.

"Some guys got a lot of training in while they were locked up, and some guys didn't get to train as much because it was tough, like here in Spain. So that was a good run by him," Harris said.