14 riders representing as many different teams form the early break after a plentitude of attacks early on.

They are: Urtasun, Vaitkus, Smukulis, Vanmarcke, Fenn, Erviti, Mezgec, Dockx, Kakhi, Owsian, Mashaba, Boivin, Tewelde and Shaqif.
Apart from Shaqif and Owsian everyonne ships in ahead and with 100 km to go they have a gap of 4'09
80 km and 4'55
70 km and 4'24
60 km and 3'42
50 km and 2'56

De la Cruz leads the peloton over Arboleda without any drama.
40 km and 2'32
30 km and 1'52

Purito opens the attacking from the peloton with as much as 27 km to go. Antón follows.
Moments later Daniel Martin tries to bridge the gap, but gets stuck between the peloton and Rodríguez-Antón.

Vanmarcke manages to drop the other breakers on the small hills before the final climb, but things are really heating up behind now with a big group of top riders breaking away from the peloton.

De las Campos leads the charge behind with the rest of the group composed of Brajkovic, Spilak, De Clerq, Kangert, Majka, Owniak, Intxausti, Kwiatkowski, Kim, I.Izagirre, Nokkvason, Niemiec and Mikel Nieve.
With just the final ascent remaining this is the situation:


Majka is first to attack from the chasing group and is immediately followed by Ion Izagirre and Kangert.

They manage to bridge the gap to the front where Purito is trying to tire out the others with a massive pull not leaving the front or slowing down for a second.
It has the effect he wanted and with 5 km to go he is alone in front:


Intxausti and Kwiatkowski bridges the gap to Martin and Kangert with 2,5 km to go wihle Spilak is trying to copy that feat.
It's tiny gaps all over the place.

Going into the final km again only Rodríguez has a real gap.

He takes a deserved win at the summit.

Of the remaining no one has the legs to put in a real accelleration so they pretty much crosses the line in the same order as they went under the red flame.


Many had hoped to see something of Gorka Nieve on this route, but the Euskadian national team continue riding a very invisible EHST.

The Sagastín award also goes to Rodríguez for his insisting attack the entire 27 km never leaving the front or even looking at his changing companions.

1	Joaquím Rodríguez	Catalunya	3h59'18
2	Michał Kwiatkowski	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	+ 25
3	Simon Spilak	Katusha Team	s.t.
4	Daniel Martin	Ireland	s.t.
5	Po-ding Kim	Asia	+ 36
6	Beñat Intxausti	Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	s.t.
7	Igor Antón	Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	s.t.
8	Tanel Kangert	Baltic Way	s.t.
9	Przemyslaw Niemiec	Poland	+ 56
10	Rafal Majka	Poland	s.t.

1	Poland	12h00'42
2	Euskaltel - Navarre	+ 7'42
3	Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	+ 9'07
4	Asia	+ 15'59
5	Ireland	+ 18'40

Place		Name	Team	Total
1		Joaquím Rodríguez	Catalunya	79
2		Michał Kwiatkowski	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	68
3		Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi Young	57
4		Simon Spilak	Katusha Team	54
5		Daniel Martin	Ireland	51
6		Beñat Intxausti	Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	43
7		Po-ding Kim	Asia	43
8		Igor Antón	Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	40
9		Tanel Kangert	Baltic Way	40
10		Rafal Majka	Poland	32

Place		Team	Total
1		Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	80
2		Poland	75
3		Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	60
4		Asia	52
5		Euskaltel - Euskadi Young	46

The next race in the series will take place in Vlaanderen, where the riders will have to tacke a cobbled route.

After Ion finishing on the podium here last year thanks to a surprisingly good sprint on stage one and some massive work by Cristiano on stage 3 we come here with hiogh hopes.
This year Cristiano won't have to worry about working for anyone else as he is the undisputed leader of the team.

On stage one though we hoped for a good results from Enrique Sanz and he placed himself perfectly heading into the sprint.

Sadly he got blocked by the riders at the front of the train as they fell back thus robbing him for a good result.

We hadn't brought anyone for the time trial and didn't get detailed results either.

We finished off with the big mountain stage where we quite frankly blew it big time.
Around halfway through the stage Txurruka attacked from the peloton along with some others. He never made it to teh frotn and for some reason none of the really big names and teasm could be bothered chasing.
Except Belkin that is.
I really can't say exactly what went wrong, but I extend my appologies to all of our fans after this horrific effort.

	Best Rider	Place	Time
Stage 1	Enrique Sanz	14th	s.t.
Stage 2	Cristiano De las Campos?	79th	+ 46
Stage 3	Amets Txurruka	34th	+ 4'43

1	Bauke Mollema	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	6h24'25
35	Amets Txurruka	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 5'40
68	Cristiano De las Campos	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 14'34
98	Miguel Mínguez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 18'15
100	Romain Sicard	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 18'43
101	Jorge Azanza	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 18'58
104	Garikoitz Bravo	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 20'56
113	Enrique Sanz	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 22'56

In many ways this is a highlight of the early season for us. It's on home soil and Antón won it last year in a close sprint.
This year he is back, but Ion is our designated leader.


Ion missed it when Valverde made the first move among the favourites, but he managed to bridge the gap without much trouble. Too bad he pulled Nerz and Slagter along with him.

Ion did well to stay awake covering the attacks from Valverde in the finale.

In the end he probably used a bit too much energy as Nerz managed to overtake him right on the line denying Ion his rightful place on the podium.

Great racing but disappointing result…
At least Igor just managed to squeeze into the top 20.

1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	4h42'44
4	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 47
20	Igor Antón	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 10'10
28	Mikel Landa	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 10'25
29	Gorka Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
49	Amets Txurruka	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
56	Arkaitz Durán	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
61	Ricardo García	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
65	Miguel Mínguez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.

The EHST challenges the riders in all terrains and now it's time for the least favourite terrain for Basques as Vlaanderen hosts a cobbled race on the route of De Ronde van Vlaanderen Espoirs.

The route provides enough cobbles for the specialistas to get a huge advantage, but also with enough regular tarmac and non-cobbled hills in the finale for other riders to find a moment that suits them.

Vanmarcke and Khampan are the obvious favourites for the win, but it will also be interesting to see which of the top riders from the rankings will score and who will not.
Kwiatkowski and Ion Izagirre seems they might have a small advantage over e.g. Rodríguez, who will probably have to assist Flecha a bit today, but with the right tactics anything can happen.

With the main part of the peloton knowing that they have no chances on the cobbles we have quite a lot of riders aiming for the break instead.
Even some rather big names hoping to limit their losses.

In the end 12 riders form the break of the day, They are: Berhane, De las Campos, R.García, Majka, Martin, Paterski, Nokkvason, Jarc, Durán, Meintjes, Taaramäe and Kakhi.
Kahki is just sitting along to help Khamphan later on.
With 150 km to go they have a gap of 6'40
140 km an 6'56

It's no big surprise to see Team Vlaanderen leading the peloton over the first cobbled sections.
130 km and 5'40
The work put in by Vlaanderen causes the first gap in the peloton dropping 57 riders. Main names lost behind are Intxausti, The Nieve cousins, Bennett and Gárate.
120 km and 5'21. The peloton is back together
110 km and 5'44

Kwiatkowski on the ground!
His team helps him back in but the question is how badly he hurt himself in the fall.
100 km and 5'16
90 km to go. The break has 3'12 to Lodewyck and Spilak, who have broken away and created a 1'44 gap to the peloton.
With 75 km to go all the breakers are united with 4'06 to the peloton.
60 km and 3'42

As the cobbled sections starts getting frequent Vlaanderen doesn't leave the front of the peloton for even a moment causing the peloton to be spread over a long distance, which on these narrow roads involves high risks of cracks appearing.
Things are really chaotic and with 50 km to go this is the situation:

Florencio puts in a massive pull and gets his group back in contact with Groupe Vlaanderen.

With 38 km to go for the front they have 2'30 to the peloton.
Lodewyck and Spilak does the most of the work but De las Campos impresses by hanging on for this long

35 km and no more cobbles to go. The riders are spread all over the place in small groups with Ion Izagirre just hanging on the teh first big group ahead of top ranked Kwiatkowski, who must have hurt himself on the crash.
Rankings leader Rodríguez sits in the 25-rider peloton 4'45 behind the lead duo.
These are the gaps:


Spilak drops Lodewyck by setting a hard pace while Vanmarcke, Khamphan and Bozic are putting in a lot of hard turns trying to catch up while also keeping Flecha/Florencio behind.

Izagirre attacks from his group behind as even duos fail to hang on to each other ahead. Verboven tries to follow, but have used a lot of energy preparing Vanmarckes attack.
15 km to go for Spilak:


Vanmarcke and Khamphan are clearly the riders with the most left in the tank after the cobbles and with 10 km to go it's almost over for Spilak.
The next 8 riders are spread over 7 groups…

Vanmarcke continues his impressive attack - now alone.

Vanmarcke gives the home fans what they came for.
Spilak has nothing left to put in a sprint for 2nd.

Bozic just manages to keep Lodewyck at bay in the sprint.

Paterski takes 6th as the best finisher of the early break.

He couldn't follow Izagirres attack, but seeing the home audience gives Verboven the energy needed to win the sprint for 10th by a good margin.

The Sagastín award goes to Spilak.

1	Sep Vanmarcke	Vlaanderen	4h51'55
2	Lue Khamse Khamphan	Asia	s.t.
3	Simon Spilak	Katusha Team	s.t.
4	Borut Božic	Slovenia	+ 1'45
5	Klaas Lodewyck	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
6	Maciej Paterski	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	+ 3'00
7	Juan Antonio Flecha	Catalunya	s.t.
8	Louis Meintjes	MTN South Africa	s.t.
9	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi Young	+ 4'01
10	Rudy Verboven	Vlaanderen	+ 4'41

1	Vlaanderen	14h45'07
2	Katusha Team	+ 1'09
3	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 1'45
4	Asia	+ 3'56
5	Slovenia	+ 4'03

Place		Name	Team	Total
1		Simon Spilak	Katusha Team	79
2		Joaquím Rodríguez	Catalunya	79
3		Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi Young	69
4		Michał Kwiatkowski	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	69
5		Daniel Martin	Ireland	55
6		Rudy Verboven	Vlaanderen	43
7		Beñat Intxausti	Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	43
8		Po-ding Kim	Asia	43
9		Igor Antón	Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	40
10		Tanel Kangert	Baltic Way	40

Place		Team	Total
1		Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	86
2		Poland	82
3		Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	75
4		Asia	71
5		Vlaanderen	60
6		Euskaltel - Euskadi Young	55
7		Catalunya	53
8		Katusha Team	53
9		Ireland	51
10		Baltic Way	47

Being raced in our neighbouring region of Catalunya, who have had similar struggles as ours with the Spanish oppressors over the time this is a very important race for us.
On top of that Samuel Sánchez got us a surprising podium last year. This time around its up to Intxausti and Nieve.

The first stage went by without drama for us. Good to see Lobato get a good result for himself while helping Calzone bag a win though.
The following day was a bit more hilly but came down to some sort of bunch sprint nonetheless.

Beñat decided to test his legs and came just short of the podium. A brilliant result from him that gives promise of further great things to come.

For stage 3 we had the first uphill finish deemed to bring more answers.
With Intxausti and Nieve as dual leaders we had good tractical options and Nieve was the first to attack along with a bunch of other big names like Valverde, Nibali and Rodríguez.

They got caught by some more riders from the back and then it was Intxausti's turn to attack. In the finale things got back together a bit more but Beñat proved that he is where he needs to be by finishing in the same time as most of the big names.

On the hard stage 4 we sent Landa in the break, but nothign really came of it and in stead we found ourselves riding a very defensive finale costing us a lot in terms of the GC.
The following day was much easier no paper, but also a lot more tricky. Beñat once again rode a very anonymous satge, but managed to climb a sport to 11th in the GC, while the break took the stage win.

The completely flat penultimalte stage saw us just as anonymous as expected. Disappointing since only one rider was in the break and he ended up taking the stage win as well…

On the final stage we were back in some lumpy terrain. Xavier finally made his way into the break in his home race. Good to see even though he didn't have much left when they reached the finish line.
A good top 5 for him, but even more importantly Intxausti stayed awake and managed to climb another spot in the GC saving us from a complete disaster.

	Best Rider	Place	Time
Stage 1	Pello Bilbao	37th	s.t.
Stage 2	Beñat Intxausti	4th	s.t.
Stage 3	Beñat Intxausti	10th	+ 15
Stage 4	Beñat Intxausti	18th	+ 3'35
Stage 5	Beñat Intxausti	17th	+ 2'48
Stage 6	Beñat Intxausti	39th	s.t.
Stage 7	Xavier Florencio	5th	s.t.

1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 28h19'30
10	Beñat Intxausti	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 28h23'21
28	Mikel Nieve	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 28h34'47
37	Mikel Landa	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 28h37'25
50	Igor Antón	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 28h40'20
68	Iván Velasco	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 28h43'09
78	Xavier Florencio	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 28h46'56
100	Haritz Orbe	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 28h53'20
162	Pello Bilbao	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 29h14'58

1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	68
18	Beñat Intxausti	Euskaltel - Euskadi	21
31	Xavier Florencio	Euskaltel - Euskadi	15
53	Mikel Landa	Euskaltel - Euskadi	3

1	Egor Silin	Astana Pro Team	77
30	Mikel Landa	Euskaltel - Euskadi	9
34	Xavier Florencio	Euskaltel - Euskadi	7

1	Thibaut Pinot	Trek Factory Racing	28h20'31
7	Mikel Landa	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 16'54
24	Haritz Orbe	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 32'49
48	Pello Bilbao	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 54'27

1	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	85h08'43
4	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 22'19

The final race of this season part for us featured another set of cobbles with Rudy being on home soil.

50 km from the finish he tried to get rid of some of the competition but ultimately didn't manage to make the difference.
In the end a solid top 10 in the final sprint makes it an approved race without impressing. Perhaps due to Xavier Florencio being busy in his home race leaving Rudy without his usual main supporter.

1	Luca Paolini	Vacansoleil - DCM	4h27'11
8	Rudy Verboven	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
63	Imanol Erviti	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 10'21
86	Koldo Fernández	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 12'27
93	Markel Irizar	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
113	Rubén Pérez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 13'57
117	Jon Aberasturi	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
127	Egoitz García	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 14'40

April was in general a long line of disappointments. Sure a podium and a top 10 in De Panne was solid - and quite a lot better than last year, but with a TT to ruin the GC the points yield still didn't quite measure up to the four days used there.
Crit. International stands as the 2nd worst race under our management, after last years TdF, while Indorain was disappointing with Ion just missing out on a home podium for us.

Catalunya started solid, got really bad but then Beñat found his legs and fought his way back in to a decent overall finish leaving it as an approved race points-wise though with quite a few beautyspots.

Dwars door Vlaanderen was marked as a measurement for how dedicated we should be in our attempt to get Rudy into Brabantse Pijl. An 8th place wasn't bad but not enough to make us push on either.
On mark but not much more than that…

	2014	2013
Driedaagse De Panne - Koksijde	17	5
Criterium International	0	134
Gran Premio Miguel Indurain	32	120
Volta a Catalunya	84	210
Dwars Door Vlaanderen	45	0

All in all a month much under par, but thanks to a good start to the season we still have scored more points pr race day than last year in general.

A hard decision this month due to the many sub-level performances. In the end one rider fought hard to come back in his debut/comeback race for us so the award goes to:

As in all other aspects we were in general less active in breaks than we should have been.
Participating in half of our breakaways (2/4) this month gives the award to:

Name	Days	Pts	Pts/Day
Izagirre, Ion	1	24	24,00
Verboven, Rudy	5	62	12,40
Intxausti, Beñat	7	76	10,86
Antón, Igor	8	8	1,00
Florencio, Xavier	11	8	0,73

With this being the time where our least favourite roadraces culminate let's have a look at the 2013 Basque Championships of another disciplin where Euskadi doesn't have a strong tradition: Cyclocross.

Atlantius wrote:

			Vuelta al Pais Vasco	GC Podium
			Klasika Primavera	Top 3
			Criterium du Dauphiné	GC Top 10

The next race in EHST will favor the fast men, though the small hill at the finish line will make it slightly more complicated than as such.

The race will be on a curcuit around Getxo:


This will be the first time we get to see some of these riders after progressing through training.

There will unfortunately be a big change to the startlist as the rules dictate that only riders with active managers will get to race unless they are needed to fill a national team. Sadly that means that current shared 3rd in the rankings Kwiatkowski and his teammates at Omega-Pharma won't be allowed to start until they get a new manager.

Also we have been made aware that Juan Pablo Asquez has a Basque heritage as well so he will be joining his teammates at Caja Rural from now on.

As usual in these races we fairly quickly get a pretty big group that gets away. Today the 10 fortune-sekers are:
Deignan, Teklehaimanot, Reguigui, Verdugo, Camaño, De la Cruz, Txurruka, Dockx, García and Smukulis.
With 100 km to go the break only has a gap of 3'58 after having had just over 5 minutes a short while.
90 km and 3'31
80 km and 3'01
70 km and 2'43
50 km and 2'03

Asia/Sinaga and Vlaanderen are the ones doing most of the work in the peloton.

With 40 km to go and 1'13 to the break Konovalovas decides to attack. His can't quite bridge the gap though.

With just under two curcuits left Verdugo, De la Cruz, Deignan and Camaño decides that it's time to move if they are to do anything.
The gap is quickly closed from behind though.
The breakers take turns attacking and that pushes the speed up enough for them to hold on to a gap of 1'30 with 20 km to go.

Verdugo and Dockx seem to break with 15 km left after both having been very active.

The final time over the small hill at the finale sees Txurruka and Reguigui getting a small gap.
With 10 km to go these are the gaps:


With 5,5 km Flecha have joined the two in front while the peloton have caught the other breakers but remain trailing by 44 seconds.
Flecha uses mis massive engine to just go straight past the other two entering the final 3 km alone.

Orica puts together a great train but with only 2 km to go Flecha looks hard to catch with about 40 seconds gap.

A massive sprint from Impey sees him entering the final km with quite a gap.

The hill might be small but it has it's effect and Verboven catches up with the South African with 500 m to go.

He goes past but Flecha's gap was just too big.

1	Juan Antonio Flecha	Catalunya	3h53'36
2	Rudy Verboven	Vlaanderen	+ 9
3	Daryl Impey	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
4	Ramunas Navardauskas	Baltic Way	s.t.
5	Luka Mezgec	Slovenia	s.t.
6	Joaquím Rodríguez	Catalunya	s.t.
7	Simon Spilak	Katusha Team	s.t.
8	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi Young	s.t.
9	Michal Golas	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	s.t.
10	Daniel Martin	Ireland	s.t.

1	Catalunya	11h41'06
2	Slovenia	+ 9
3	Baltic Way	s.t.
4	Vlaanderen	s.t.
5	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.

Place		Name	Team	Total
1		Joaquím Rodríguez	Catalunya	94
2		Simon Spilak	Katusha Team	93
3		Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi Young	82
4		Michał Kwiatkowski	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	69
5		Rudy Verboven	Vlaanderen	68
6		Daniel Martin	Ireland	66
7		Juan Antonio Flecha	Catalunya	45
8		Tanel Kangert	Baltic Way	45
9		Beñat Intxausti	Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	43
10		Po-ding Kim	Asia	43

Place		Team	Total
1		Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	96
2		Poland	94
3		Catalunya	83
4		Vlaanderen	79
5		Asia	75