25 years old, Wage: 104,000

FLA	MO	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DWH	PRO
74	55	63	55	74	69	74	59	80	77	64	58	55

27 years old , Wage: 100,000

FLA	MO	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DWH	PRO
71	67	71	65	72	70	76	60	76	75	71	60	65

27 years old , Wage: 70,000

FLA	MO	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DWH	PRO
70	66	68	60	73	69	73	58	76	76	66	64	60

33 years old , Wage: 100,000

FLA	MO	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DWH	PRO
73	56	64	77	69	68	76	70	75	76	71	61	77

26 years old , Wage: 50,000

FLA	MO	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DWH	PRO
73	58	64	51	69	67	73	68	75	75	65	64	71

29 years old , Wage: 60,000

FLA	MO	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DWH	PRO
68	75	72	68	72	67	74	56	73	70	61	68	70

33 years old , Wage: 50,000

FLA	MO	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DWH	PRO
73	60	68	75	70	68	70	58	67	74	73	63	75

21 years old , XP LVL: 2.81 , Pot: 6 , Wage: 100,000

FLA	MO	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DWH	PRO
65	70	69	68	68	68	68	54	59	62	63	67	68

22 years old , XP LVL: 2.43 , Pot: 5 , Wage: 50,000

FLA	MO	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DWH	PRO
65	50	61	68	66	68	62	62	70	70	52	67	73

24 years old , XP LVL: 2.62 , Pot: 5 , Wage: 50,000

FLA	MO	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DWH	PRO
68	52	52	70	63	66	58	53	68	72	56	56	72

24 years old , Wage: 80,000 , Team: Volkswagen - Andritz (PT)

FLA	MO	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DWH	PRO
66	73	73	66	71	68	70	57	60	64	70	72	65

26 years old , Wage: 50,000 , Team: Pokerstars.com (PT)

FLA	MO	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FIG	DWH	PRO
71	61	66	56	70	67	70	52	75	73	62	67	65

Nat	Name	Age	Overall	Wage
	Rafael Valls	28	76.69	500,000
	David López Garcia	34	74.05	75,000
	David Arroyo	35	73.93	100,000
	Nacer Bouhanni	25	73.84	104,000
	Juan José Cobo	34	73.67	100,000
	José Herrada	30	73.66	75,000
	Arnold Jeannesson	29	73.43	65,000
	Gorka Izagirre	28	73.06	100,000
	Manuel Lloret	34	72.88	60,000
	Delio Fernandez	29	72.78	60,000
	William Bonnet	33	72.69	100,000
	Rafael Infantino	31	72.58	75,000
	Amets Txurruka	33	72.4	75,000
	Kévin Reza	27	72.22	100,000
	Francisco Anton Martin	27	71.71	70,000
	Hector Duenas Nevado	28	71.49	50,000
	Julien El Fares	30	71.4	71,000
	Julian David Arredondo	27	71.37	75,000
	Enrique Sanz	26	71.35	50,000
	Juan Sebastian Tamayo Martinez	27	71.32	60,000
	Benoît Vaugrenard	33	71.29	50,000
	Amaël Moinard	33	71.22	65,000
	Boris Borisavljevic	21	69.07	100,000
	Haritz Orbe	24	66.56	65,000
	Alex Frame	22	66.16	50,000
	Sebastian Anaya	24	65.72	50,000

The first stage was a flat 118km circuit. This was the first chance for the sprinters to show themselves.


Our guys doing some of the work up front early in the stage, along with BPost and Prio.


The break was caught with 6km remaining, our guys up at the front of the peloton.


With only 4km to go Reza and Anton Martin step on the gas and leave a gap to the rest!


Anton Martin takes over with 2.5km to go, still a gap back to the others.


Going into the final kilometer we have a good lead and Bouhanni goes to the front.


500m to go and he is flying ahead of everyone else.


And he takes the stage win, doesn't have the time to celebrate on the line though. Anton Martin finishes 5th and Reza 10th.


He does however celebrate on the podium as he takes the first yellow jersey of the year. What a fantastic start it was for the new sprinters of the team and we will be defending the jersey going into the second stage.





We do the work early on another sprinters stage.


5km to go and we are forming a train yet again.


Reza shows his power again as he leads the line of riders behind him.


Anton Martin only takes over with 1.5km to go but there are other riders coming up.


Bouhanni fails to accelerate as quickly as he would have liked.


It is head to head to head between Nacer, Krieger and Avelino.


Krieger just takes it on the line, Bouhanni this time finishing 3rd in the yellow jersey. Unfortunately the acceleration just wasn't there. Bouhanni stays in Yellow.





The third stage is another one for the sprinters, we are doing the work at the front yet again.


5km to go, the break is caught, the sprinters are setting up.


There is more competition here as three trains have formed.


This time the Prio-Porto lead out was stronger than ours.


Avelino took the stage win and the leaders jersey. Bouhanni though managed a strong 2nd place!





The first Mountainous stage was won by Barredo from the breakaway with a decent gap as well. Txurruka is the only of our riders not to lose time to the leaders.





The final sprinters stage and we didn't do any work on the front today.


7km to go and our riders are sitting a little bit further back than usual.


5km to go, the break has 20 seconds. Bouhanni isn't up with the rest of our sprinters today, he can't be feeling too well.


The stage is won by the breakaway rider. Reza comes in at a respectable 7th, a bit disappointing today.





At 101.8kms we have the first real Mountainous stage of this year's race.


For the first time our riders attack. It is Txurruka who is followed by Beltran.


They are followed soon after by 4 others and they hold a decent lead going later into the race.


At the top of the final climb it is Beltran who attacks, Txurruka unsuccessfully tries to follow.


10km to go and Sella has caught up with Txurruka and Villegas, Beltran is half a minute in front.


Beltran takes the stage win.


Thanks to Sella leading the second trio Txurruka finishes 2nd on the stage with the same time as Beltran! He moves to 2nd in the GC now!





Yet another mountainous stage, this one a bit longer though at just over 167kms.


Murillo is out front as a loan escapee late in the race. Txurruka is in a chasing group behind the big trio of Sella, Rujano and Marquez.


Murillo takes the stage. The big trio come in 58 seconds back. Group Txurruka has lost 1'30 to the trio. He moves to 5th in the GC now.





Another stage in the Mountains is 137km long this time round.


The 10 ma man breakaway, including our own Arredondo held a 2'45 lead with 15km remaining. They begin the final climb.


Just after the top leaders attacked Txurruka attacked with Quintana.


5km to go and the leaders group, of which Txurruka is in, has the break in their sights.


But Rujano and Sella are too strong here today and they fight it out in the final kilometer.


Arredondo sprints behind them to try get a good finish.


Rujano edges Sella on the line and celebrates.


Arredondo is the best from the breakaway in a valiant 4th place behind Pantano Gómez


Txurruka finished a bit behind the Arredondo group, but finished in 14th which saw him with the same time as Marquez. Due to Beltran losing a fair bit of time Txurruka moves back up to 4th.




None of our riders featured in today's breakaway on this 135km stage.


Sella took today's stage.


Txurruka struggled today but in the end held onto 6th in the GC going into the final stage.





Izagirre gets into the breakaway on this final stage.


De Clerq takes the win from this breakaway group, Izagirre rather disappointingly only managing 6th place.


Riders were scattered between the breakaway and the peloton lead in by the team.


Sella wins the Vuelta al Tachira!

Castañeda of Bonsucro took out the bunch sprint on stage 1 with all of our riders staying out of trouble.





Kupfernagel took out stage 2 after another bunch sprint. Valls this time finishing 10th which was a promising sign.





The first of the GC deciding stages in the race. Valls would have to be strong today.


After an early unsuccessful attempt by Arroyo, it ended up being Txurruka joining the breakaway of 4 riders.


Later in the race now, and Valls makes the 11 rider split ahead of some much bigger names.


Rujano attacks Valls and Kwiatkowski with 3km to go.


He takes the stage with a good gap.


Iglinski of Bonsucro comes in 2nd 1'18 down. Kwiat 3rd and Valls 4th come in 12 seconds later. Valls now 4th in the GC.





A hilly 4th stage would also have an impact on the GC.


Izagirre joins the 10 man breakaway.


Late in the race now, the break out front. Kwiatkowski attacks, Valls is part of the 8 man group chasing him.


Out front it is De Clerq and Izagirre who have broken away from their former companions.


Izagirre just gets out sprinted at the line but takes a good 2nd place. This also helps him gain a lot of time.


Small group Kwiatkowski comes in 28 seconds behind.


Group Rujano, including Valls comes in at 1'46.


Rujano narrowly holds on by 16 seconds over Kwiat. Valverde into 3rd. Valls stays cemented in that 4th position.





The 5th stage was one for the sprinters. The stage win was taken from them by the breakaway though.





An interesting final stage here. The hills will certainly suit Kwiatkowski and Valverde.


Txurruka in the breakaway today.


This is the situation as we near the finish.


The stage win goes to one of the brave escapees Amanuel but only just ahead of Valverde.


Kwiatkowski comes in at 28 seconds.


1'11 for the main group. Valls finishes 10th at 1'03 so just ahead.


Kwiatskowski wins the Tour of Eritrea ahead of Valverde in 2nd and Rujano 3rd.