With a lot of climbs spread over the stage and a downhill finish this looks like an interesting stage for us.
Gorka Izagirre joins the break, but doesn't thrive in the wet conditions. He tries to get away by himself in the fiinsh, but in the end takes a good 3rd place.
The first big mountain top finish of the race means both that we have rally entered out terrain and that the stage will probably be a thing between the GC favourites.
While I appreciate the spirit it would have made sense if someone else than Vrecer had gone in the break today...
With the main challenge of the day right in the middle of the stage I emphasized to the boys that they had to be in the break today. Not that it was needed though!
Gorka Verdugo even start the attacking today looking very determined.
He is so enthusiastic that he attacks already on the descent and none of the others are able to match him when he is on this kind of form!
This could be one for both the sprinters and a strong break.
Of course our money is on the latter and Azanza is next in line to go out on the attack.
He can't keep the sprinters behind, but shows some great spirit.
Cristiano shows that his legs are back where they should be by jumping in todays break.
He is not out of bad luck though and has another taste of the tarmac making him miss the decisive attack in the break.
Still it's good to see him take a top 10 at least. Hopefully he is not too badly hurt this time.
A big mountain stage should be another day for us to attack.
At first we miss out on the break but as soon as the climbing really begins Cristiano quickly bridges the gap and starts shaping the race.
The favourites join up with him, but most of them, including pink jersey Nibali and Betancur, ends up on the short end of our young Navarran climber. Only three riders get to the final summit before him.
This could have been great had the GC been neutralized after the first week!
Results
Best Rider
Place
Time
Stage 8:
Gorka Izagirre
35th
+ 3'15
Stage 9:
Gorka Izagirre
3rd
+ 53
Stage 10:
Cristiano de las Campos
20th
+ 8'17
Stage 11:
Gorka Verdugo
WIN
- 47
Stage 12:
Jorge Azanza
27th
s.t.
Stage 13:
Cristiano de las Campos
6th
+ 41
Stage 14:
Cristiano de las Campos
4th
+ 53
General Classification
1
Vincenzo Nibali
Astana Pro Team
54h00'48
23
Gorka Verdugo
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 18'59
40
Gorka Izagirre
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 25'24
59
Mikel Astarloza
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 37'08
72
Cristiano De las Campos
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 45'26
82
Robert Vrecer
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 49'16
94
Jorge Azanza
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 57'09
112
Juan José Oroz
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 1h06'06
151
Adrián Sáez de Arregi
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 1h37'36
152
Ioannis Tamouridis
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 1h37'58
Points Classification
1
Carlos Betancur
AG2R La Mondiale
134
23
Gorka Verdugo
Euskaltel - Euskadi
29
29
Gorka Izagirre
Euskaltel - Euskadi
24
31
Cristiano De las Campos
Euskaltel - Euskadi
24
60
Robert Vrecer
Euskaltel - Euskadi
6
77
Mikel Astarloza
Euskaltel - Euskadi
3
Mountain Classification
1
Johnny Hoogerland
Vacansoleil - DCM
27
8
Gorka Izagirre
Euskaltel - Euskadi
13
15
Gorka Verdugo
Euskaltel - Euskadi
7
27
Cristiano De las Campos
Euskaltel - Euskadi
4
41
Robert Vrecer
Euskaltel - Euskadi
1
42
Jorge Azanza
Euskaltel - Euskadi
1
Young Riders Classification
1
Carlos Betancur
AG2R La Mondiale
54h01'35
15
Cristiano De las Campos
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 44'39
Team Classification
1
Sky Procycling
161h45'13
12
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 33'46
With someone in the break every day, several top 10's a stage win and every single rider on the team climbing up in the GC week 2 really compensated for all the hardship we had to go through in the first week!
We signed up for this race to give Lobato a chance to shine in a race of his own in stead of sharing teh stage with Verboven. much like Rudy got in Dunkerque...
Lobato, Juan José Bilbao, Pello Chaoufi, Tarik García, Ricardo Mínguez, Miguel Pérez, Ruben Radochla, Stefan Schulze, André
Before stage 2 I reminded the guys that they were supposed to be actually racing and not just on a training camp.
They took good care of JJ during the day, but he was left fending for his own in the sprint.
Fortunately he's pretty good at that when he comes there in good shape and takes a very fine 2nd place on the stage which brings him in the white jersey after the stage!
Before this stage we had two opportunities: Protecting JJ towards the finish line or attacking on the hills/from the break.
For some silly reason the boys decided to both send a guy in the break (Garcia) AND to chase it down.
That didn't end well at all since JJ lost his spot in the GC top 10. With less than a second up he still has every chance to regain that tomorrow, though the white jersey looks far away.
With a few small lumps towards the finish we hoped that Lobato could find his good sprinting form from stage 2 and 3 and get back in the GC top 10 thanks to the bonus seconds.
He was delivered nicely behind Kristoff at the back of the Bardiani train. Unfortunately that train didn't have what it took to reel in an attacking trio in front and the bonus seconds never came into play.
Since neither Kwiatkowski's nor Fuglsangs manager have been around much for the last week or so I have decided to include both riders, but they won't be equipped with any teammates.
The racing is about to commence so hopefully you'll get the report later today.
Gorka Nieve gets to the front of the peloton right from the start, but doesn’t follow the first few attacks.
Good the same as the first wave of attacks prove futile.
He doesn’t hit the next wave wither though, and that seems much more solid as six riders have a 2 minute gap on the first time across Alto de Abaltzisketa.
They are: Salas, Péres Arrieta, Huguet, Aramendia, Lana and Abarasturi.
With 100 km to go and the second pass oer Abaltzisketa done with a few riders have joined the break, still at 2 minutes. Most prominently Sanz, while Gorka Nieve’s helper Ruiz have hit the break for the 2nd race in a row.
3rd time over the main challenge of the day and Castroviejo sees the 3-minute gap as an invitation to go after the break. With his strong TT-skills he should have every chance of bridging the gap on his own.
He does, but not much to the liking of the Euskaltel teams, who quickly reduce the gap to 1’30’’ before hitting the smaller Alto de Altzo for the first time today.
Txurruka is known and loved for his attacking spirit and today is no different as he goes away as soon as the peloton starts climbing and the break only has a minutes gap.
He pulls the peloton with him past the break, but continues the attack on his own while the hills are starting to have some effect on the peloton cutting it in half. Most noteworthy behind the two guest-riders from RusVelo, Irizar, Camaño, Sicard, Gárate, Fernández, Gorka Nieve and the cobbles-winner Delage.
Most of these looks more like badly placed than actually very tired, so we might still see some of them rejoining the fight.
Txurruka is having one of the best days of his career and with 40 km to go and one passing of each hill left he has expanded his gap to 3’47’’. Also most of the riders caught behind have now rejoined the front.
It’s mainly Euskaltel – Euskadi vs Txurruka with the other big names right behind ready to strike.
David López takes his chance on a long attack from Altzo with 20 km to go and two minutes up to the lone attacker.
Fuglsang and Intxausti follow the attack soon after, but the orange army is not letting them go easily and reduces the “peloton” to only 18 riders with one time over Abaltzisketa left to decide things.
As soon as the incline start Intxausti is off again and for the first time we see Kwiatkowski taking part in the racing.
The Basque fans will be happy to see Antón latch on to the wheel of the Pole.
Let’s have a look at the situation at the top of the Abaltzisketa with only the 10 km downhill left before the finish line:
A. Txurruka
|
+ 1’08
Kwiatkowski, Antón, I. Izagirre, G. Izagirre, Durán, Intxausti, Castroviejo, Fuglsang, Zubeldia, Astarloza, López, M. Nieve
|
+ ‘32
De las Campos, Minguez
|
+ ‘09
Landa, Bilbao
|
…
Txurruka gives it everything on the descent towards glory keeping a gap of just over a minute with 6 km to go.
Kwiatkowski surprises by starting the sprint very early. Not that it helps him, but perhaps that is what is needed to catch the Caja Rural rider ahead.
The favourites group can see Txurruka going under la flame rouge with Kwiatkowski looking done for today and Ion Izagirre first in line for 2nd place
500 m left and it’s a very close sprint between Izagirre, Durán and Intxausti.
Txurruka is untouchable and takes a deserved win after half a race on his own fending off all the big names!
Intxausti is the strongest of the rest with Antón coming 3rd after a relatively anonymous race from the leader of the rankings before today.
Riders keep dropping in one or two at time, but the fans are treated well with even getting a hard sprint for 20th place.
Full Results
1
Amets Txurruka
Caja Rural - Seguros RGA
4h19'41
2
Beñat Intxausti
Movistar Team
s.t.
3
Igor Antón
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
4
Arkaitz Durán
Efapel - Glassdrive
s.t.
5
Ion Izagirre
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
6
David López
Sky Procycling
s.t.
7
Haimar Zubeldia
RadioShack - Leopard
s.t.
8
Mikel Nieve
Euskaltel - Navarre
s.t.
9
Michał Kwiatkowski
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team
s.t.
10
Jakob Fuglsang
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
Spoiler
11
Jonathan Castroviejo
Movistar Team
s.t.
12
Gorka Izagirre
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
13
Mikel Astarloza
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
14
Cristiano De las Campos
Euskaltel - Navarre
+ 1'30
15
Miguel Mínguez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
16
Pello Bilbao
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 1'48
17
Mikel Landa
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
18
Garikoitz Bravo
RadioShack - Leopard
+ 2'20
19
Rubén Pérez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 2'50
20
Egoi Martínez
Euskaltel - Navarre
+ 3'11
21
Xabier Zandio
Sky Procycling
s.t.
22
Gorka Verdugo
Euskaltel - Navarre
s.t.
23
Aitor Galdos
Euskadi Talents
+ 3'42
24
Pablo Urtasun
Euskaltel - Navarre
s.t.
25
Jorge Azanza
Euskaltel - Navarre
s.t.
26
Ricardo García
Belkin Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
27
Sergey Firsanov
RusVelo
s.t.
28
Juan José Oroz
Euskaltel - Navarre
s.t.
29
Iván Velasco
Caja Rural - Seguros RGA
s.t.
30
Víctor De la Parte
Euskadi Talents
s.t.
31
Wladi Pedrovski
RusVelo
s.t.
32
Javier Etxarri
Navarre Talents
s.t.
33
Egoitz García
Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
+ 4'56
34
Romain Sicard
Euskaltel - Aquitaine
s.t.
35
Enrique Sanz
Movistar Team
+ 5'43
36
Juan Manuel Gárate
Belkin Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
37
Imanol Erviti
Movistar Team
s.t.
38
Javier Francisco Aramendia
Caja Rural - Seguros RGA
s.t.
39
Yann Huguet
Team Argos - Shimano
s.t.
40
Koldo Fernández
Garmin - Sharp
s.t.
41
Jon Aberasturi
Garmin - Sharp
s.t.
42
Iban Mayoz
Euskadi Talents
s.t.
43
Gorka Nieve
Orica - GreenEdge
s.t.
44
Markel Irizar
RadioShack - Leopard
s.t.
45
Omar Fraile
Caja Rural - Seguros RGA
s.t.
46
Aitor Hernández
Euskadi Talents
s.t.
47
Ibon Zugasti
Sky Procycling
s.t.
48
Jean-Luc Delpech
Bretagne - Séché Environnement
s.t.
49
Adrián Sáez de Arregi
Efapel - Glassdrive
s.t.
50
Mickaël Delage
FDJ.fr
s.t.
51
Guillermo Lana
Navarre Talents
+ 7'16
52
Joseba Larralde
Navarre Talents
s.t.
53
Aketza Peña
FDJ.fr
s.t.
54
Ibai Salas
Euskadi Talents
s.t.
55
Pierre Cazaux
Aquitaine Talents
s.t.
56
Julien Mazet
Aquitaine Talents
s.t.
57
Jon Pardo
Navarre Talents
s.t.
58
Aitor Pérez Arrieta
Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
s.t.
59
Aritz Bagües
Euskadi
s.t.
60
Igor Romero
Euskadi Talents
s.t.
61
Yannick Marié
Aquitaine Talents
s.t.
62
Fabien Patanchon
Aquitaine Talents
+ 8'10
63
Jean Mespoulede
Euskaltel - Aquitaine
s.t.
64
Igor Merino
Euskadi
+ 9'08
65
Sergio Ruiz
Orica - GreenEdge
s.t.
66
Illart Zuazubiskar
Euskadi
s.t.
67
Iker Camaño
Team NetApp - Endura
s.t.
68
Haritz Orbe
Euskadi
+ 9'53
69
Nicolas Capdepuy
Aquitaine Talents
s.t.
70
Mikel Bizkarra
Euskadi
+ 10'50
71
Unai Iparragirre
Euskadi
s.t.
72
Andoni Lafuente
Bretagne - Séché Environnement
+ 11'59
73
Alberto Morrás
Team NetApp - Endura
s.t.
74
Carl Naïbo
Aquitaine Talents
s.t.
75
Daniel Sesma
Navarre Talents
s.t.
76
Mikel Aristi
Euskadi
s.t.
77
Mikel Ilundain
Navarre Talents
+ 13'20
78
Beñat Urain
Euskadi Talents
+ 13'58
79
Jon Larrinaga
Euskadi
s.t.
80
Beñat Txoperena
Navarre Talents
s.t.
81
Romain Guillemois
Aquitaine Talents
+ 15'14
82
Xabier Zabalo
Navarre Talents
s.t.
83
Kevin Labeque
Aquitaine Talents
s.t.
84
Mikel Iturria
Team Argos - Shimano
+ 16'07
85
Aske Vorre
Blue Water Cycling
s.t.
86
Jacob Kjeldsen
Blue Water Cycling
+ 17'28
The Agustín award goes to Txurruka for the way he insisted. Forst on getting away at that specific point in the route and later for his brave battle keeping the big names at bay on his own.
Shonak: Yeah. I even cheered for him the last 10-15 km!
Ollfardh: Well I'm sure he would have if Gárate hadn't been hanging around at the back of the peloton all day and missing the splits due to crappy positioning
krisa: Only EHST points I'm afraid. Of course you can also use it as a base for a HQ-post, which could then help you towards more points for devlopment at least...
We went to Germany mainly because it should be a good race for Rudy and JJ but also because of a vain hope that the Germans might be able to be better than worthless on home soil...
First we missed out on getting a man in the break, which should have been mandatory on a race featuring cobbles.
In stead we ended up pulling even over the cobbled section preparing an attack from Verboven.
Unfortunately he was caught again fairly quickly and even more unfortunately he had spent all his energy on the first attack leaving nothing for the sprint, which by the way was missed by Lobato as well due to bad positioning when the peloton cracked.
The Germans surprised pleasantly by both finishing inside the top 100.
April was an extremely busy month for us taking part in 8 races and amassing a total of 33 race days. Both are records for us within one month!
First we had a couple of races to finish from last month. In 4 Jours de Dunkerque we had Rudy in a very good position looking to be the favourite for the white jersey until he crashed on the all-decisive stage 4. Still he scored us some good points with his GC 6th and a stage 2nd.
Giro del Trentino was supposed to be Cristiano de las Campos’ dress rehearsal for the Giro d’Italia later this month. Sadly he threw all his GC chances away by (again) being such a nice guy that he tried protecting Ion’s GC lead in the mountains. Gorka Verdugo is another rider featuring in the “big” Giro and he proved ready by finishing 3nd on stage 4 here improving things a good bit for us in an overall slightly disappointing 2nd half of the race.
As I believe many others we had forgotten the addition of cobbles to De Brabantse Pijl. Fortunately we had still brought our best cobbler and the amount of the bloody stones weren’t too high so Ion should be ok as well we figured. Sadly neither of the two felt like racing, but at least Egoi gave us a solid 12th out of the early break.
For Tour de Romandie we had high hopes for Samuel Sánchez. Especially after his 11th place on the opening ITT. Sadly apart from a decent stage 4 he was completely invisible and finished 11th in the GC making the race close to pointless for us.
Disheartened by the recent disappointments we went to Baloise Belgium Tour where the sponsors wanted us to get a stage win and we had sent a strong team lead by Verboven, Ion Izagirre and Lobato. Verboven did good on the first sprint stage while it was still clear that the stage win would be hard. So when Ion rode a brilliant TT putting him in white he became the undisputed captain. Or at least that’s what I told the team. Apparently Rudy Verboven didn’t quite get the message and counterattacked Ion on the final stage laying out the foundation for Kakhi’s assault on Ion’s GC. An immature showing by the Flemish youngster at best, but one that cost the team a lot of points and Ion a very big moment.
The Giro d’Italia week 1 was barely worthy of a mention here as it was characterized by a combination of invisibility and bad luck completely ruining any outside chances Cristiaono might have had for a GC top 10. Thank god week 1 was followed by week 2 where the team was completely transformed symbolized in Ioannis and Cristiano holding a provisional 1-2 for quite a while on the ITT and us managing to hit the break 7 stages in a row! Not that we aren’t both happy with Gorka Izagirres podium on stage 9 or Cristiano’s two top 10’s on stage 13 and 14 proving that he is over his injury before the biggest mountains have come, but seeing Gorka Verdugo take his first ever professional win after a very impressive breakaway performance was something truly special.
We signed up for Glava Tour of Norway in order to give JJ the chance of leading in a race suiting a guy with his talents. He put in some brilliant sprints he was left in white before the most important hilly stage, where he ended up losing a minute to the GC leader, who is also wearing white. With less than a second left to enter the top 10 we hope that he will be able to find another strong sprint on the final stage
The 3rd race in the Euskal Herria Segida Txalpelkatan should have given a boost to our confidence but alas. Txurruka was too strong for anyone and in spite of a solid effort we lost the rankings lead to Intxausti.
We could tell you a lot about Rund um Köln but the truth is that there are no real excuses. Rudy decided to put all his eggs in one basket, but unfortunately he didn’t have quite enough to fill it in one attempt. A 23rd place with this route and peloton is much less than we had expected from him!
April Rankings
First Name
Last Name
Days
Points
Gorka
Verdugo
19
92
Rudy
Verboven
10
67
Gorka
Izagirre
19
40
Cristiano
de las Campos
19
32
Juan José
Lobato
10
24
Egoi
Martínez
1
14
Samuel
Sánchez
6
8
Ion
Izagirre
9
5
Spoiler
Pello
Bilbao
21
Garikoitz
Bravo
17
Mikel
Astarloza
16
Jorge
Azanza
16
Juan José
Oroz
16
Adrián
Sáez de Arregi
16
Ioannis
Tamouridis
16
Robert
Vrecer
16
Tarik
Chaoufi
14
Mikel
Landa
12
Ricardo
García
11
Jure
Kocjan
10
Ricardo
Mestre
9
Stefan
Radochla
9
André
Schulze
8
Romain
Sicard
8
Miguel
Mínguez
7
Igor
Antón
6
Rubén
Pérez
5
Jon
Aberasturi
1
Mikel
Nieve
1
Pablo
Urtasun
Riders not mentioned did not race this month. Full rankings can be found in post #2
Rider of the Month
As if there was ever any doubt…
Gorka Verdugo loves riding Giro’s in Italy and with his 2nd place in Trentino and his impressive win in Giro d’Italia combined with being our only rider with a shot at the GC top 20 there he has to be the rider of the month for us!
Coming Up
Well first of all more attacking in the Giro and a hope of Gorka Verdugo squeezing into the top 20.
Apart from that we will be racing Dauphiné, Suisse and Luxembourg more or less at the same time.
Samu will lead in France supported by Nieve, who is preparing for the Tour.
Tour de Suisse will be a chance for de los Campos to prove what he can do if he avoids crashing and with the form he’s starting to show in Italy we have great hopes for him.
We will be sending a very strong team to Luxembourg as well with Verboven, Ion Izagirre and Antón all there chasing glory.
The sponsors want us to get a GC top 10 in both the two WT-races.
A Glimpse of History
The Basque movement for independence have historically been supported by socialists. If nothing else due to the fact that it was also a battle against the Fascist Spanish regime.
In honour of that and the International Workers Day we bring you a song translated to most languages in the world. Here in our lovely Basque tongue (sorry for the bad recording):
Another mountain stage and another breakaway for us.
Today it's Vrecers turn to go away again.
He puts in a very strong show being the last from the breakaway to lose contact with Gesink.
Too bad teh favourites were coming fast from behind denying him what would have been a well-earned top 10.
Wether this would be one for the break or a rare chance for the stronger sprinters it seemed.
Izagirre made sure that we coered the first option and on the hill he tried to get rid of the rest of teh break. To some extent he succeeded, but he was caught again and inspite of another strong attack 3 km from the line he was outsprinted on the line.
The final day looked like a sprinters stage on paper.
That didn't stop us from chasing the break obviously...
Oroz was the of our guys out there in this race, but he didn't have much impact on the finale even though Hoogerland took a surprising (but deserved) win out of the break just ahead of the peloton.
I usualy write on my own blog instead of on the team's website, but I felt all Euskaltel fans needed to see this, especially those not watching the classics (and that might be quite a few). What I did in the last stage of the Tour the Belgium was stupid. I wanted a good result and attacked, not realising the guy in my wheel was such a thread. I didn't know him, pretty sure he wasn't around all season, and the team car couldn't get to me to tell me to stop riding. As it was a Continental Tour race, there were no radio communications either.
But enough excuses. A fifth place from me doesn't justify me causing Ion to lose his top 10 spot and youth jersey. So I need to say sorry to Ion for that, he's been riding a very good season and I just can't do something like that to a guy with his status. And sorry to the team, I'm very grateful for what they've given me so far and this was a lousy way to show that. It won't happen again guys!
With no races left now that I have finished the Giro, I have some time to update you on what has happened in the previous months. I started this part of the season in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. With the hilly route it did not suit me, but I was only there to assist Samu Sanchez. It all went well, until stage 5, where Sanchez lost over 2 minutes. Contador would go on and take the win, while Sanchez finished 9th. I finished 61st, 17 minutes behind.
Vincenzo Nibali
Robert Vrecer
Ioannis Tamouridis
Carlos Betancur
Johnny Hoogerland
Sky Procycling
Kwiatek has to be a favourite, while Gorka could get a nice Top 20 
Lobato, Juan José 
Chaoufi, Tarik 
Radochla, Stefan 
Alexander Kristoff
Heimdal Hägg
IAM Cycling
Kwiatkowski (OPQ), 
Fuglsang (AST), 
Yohann Gène
RadioShack - Leopard
Jay McCarthy
