The past two seasons have been trying for Italian rider Nicola Consi, who recovered from iliac artery surgery and the disappearance of his team to stage a comeback with a podium finish at the Norwegian Arctic Race on Sunday.

After signing a contract with Alpecin Deceuninck this month for next season, Konci was forced to undergo iliac artery surgery, cutting short his 2021 campaign, his contract year with Trek-Segafredo. This season he moved to Gazprom Rusvelo, but experienced only five days of racing before the team was expelled and eventually disbanded in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Until the spring, Conti represented Italy in several domestic stage races (he finished sixth in the Giro di Sicilia), but in May Alpecin Deceuninck signed him to the Continental Development team.

The team raced aggressively in the final stage of the Norwegian Arctic Race on Sunday, with Conti finishing third overall, his best result of the season.

"Yes, the last few years have not been easy for me," Conti told Cycling News after his podium finish in Trondheim. I had surgery on my iliac artery, and that's what happened with Gazprom."

"In the end, I was really happy to join Alpecin. Now I realize that Alpecin is a great team and I feel really good. So I'm looking forward to the next race and I'm happy with the race today."

Alpecin-Desseuninck was joined by three others in the chase group behind Andreas Reknesund, who took the stage win and overall victory on stage 4, looking to move up from positions of 8th, 9th, and 10th at the end of the three-day race.

Conti, along with Cristian Sbaralli and Jason Osborne, started with 20 km to go. Conti eventually attacked on the final climb of the day and rode solo to take second place on the stage and move up six places to third overall.

"Our goal is not to sit in the peloton, they are trying to defend 8th, 9th, and 10th on GC," said Conti.

"We said we had nothing to lose. They said they had nothing to lose. We risked losing everything, but we also wanted to win. I attacked with three laps to go and in the final we were three and it worked out well.

"But of course, Leknesund was really strong. But Leknesund was really strong. In the end, it was a little bit disappointing for the stage, but we worked really well together and I'm happy with the result."

Conti will go straight to the Tour of Denmark, which starts Tuesday, to support Tour de France stage winner Jasper Philipsen. The 25-year-old Conti, who is closing in on his first professional victory, reiterated how happy he is with his new team.

"I've already done a lot of races and team camps with the team. Until the day before I came to Norway, I was in La Plagne with the riders competing in the Vuelta."

"Instead of staying at home, I had the opportunity to meet and train with many people from the team. Like I said before, I'm happy to be here."