We had a sponsor stage win goal ambition shere but without Bilbao and Barbero, we sorta have a hard time getting there. On day 1, Lawson Craddock won 18 seconds ahead of the peloton. Xabier Zandio finished on the strong fourth place there.


One place worse was Enrique Sanz the next day, when a flat stage was won by Selig.

Vuelta Madrid, Final Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Rüdiger Selig	Bora - Argon 18	2h15'52
2	Daryl Impey	Orica - GreenEDGE	s.t.
3	Silvan Dillier	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
4	Tom Van Asbroeck	Team LottoNL - Jumbo	s.t.
5	Enrique Sanz	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.

Crazy race in the rain. Over the gravel roads of a welsh climb, Euskalte-Euskadi split wide open the race and blew it apart. With Sanz and Barbero ready for the sprint in the ensuing 60 kilometers, we have the best cards to play. Egoitz Garcia took over the charge from Irizar and Duran.


Things can ruin in split seconds though. On the rainy roads, Sanz crashed. Since he had arguably the best legs of the time and was fully protected, the crash of several riders really put the pressure on us. Our guys were empty


Duran sort of was ahead since the splits blew the small group apart. Castroviejo attacked from far out then and was never to be seen again. Duran and Reis were eventually caught but luckily we had our Barbero. He secured a podium finish coming third behind Golas in the reduced sprint. Castroviejo won.

(Unfortunately results export failed)

The past days have not been kind to Enrique Sanz. Barbero was storming away with top results, he failed or non-delivered. Now against top class sprinters such as Ciolek it was down to Sanz to satisfy our sponsor at Tour of Estonia with a stage win.

He did exactly that.

On the first stage, the peloton was rather shy and looking at each other. Sanz used this his advantage, garnered speed and got away for a great victory inside the last two kilometers. The following day in the race leader jersey, Sanz again got a podium place, this time third behind Cofidis duo. Thus he secured the overall victory as well.

Tour of Estonia: GC, points jersey and a stage win.

Tour of Estonia, Final Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Enrique Sanz	Euskaltel - Euskadi	7h31'20
2	Borut Božic	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	+ 4
3	Brenton Jones	Drapac Professional Cycling	+ 8
4	Kenneth Vanbilsen	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	s.t.
5	Lorenzo Rota	Bardiani - CSF	+ 9
6	Roman Maikin	Gazprom - RusVelo	+ 10
7	Nicola Boem	Bardiani - CSF	s.t.
8	Tarlan Mammadov	Synergy Baku Cycling Project	s.t.
9	Andrea Zordan	Team Roth	+ 13
10	Gerald Ciolek	Stölting Service Group	+ 14

In June some more solid results floated in, all of them featured Sanz and Barbero as our main actors but unfortunately we did not score any more wins. It includes a fifth place at Pearl Izumi Tour Series Round 4, Sanz’ second place at Rund um Köln and another second place, this tiem by Barbero, at Int. Raffeisen Grand Prix Judendorf.

Pearl Izumi Race 4, Result

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Ivan Santaromita	Skydive Dubai - Al Ahli Club	1h34'37
2	Alex Harvey	NFTO	s.t.
3	Dion Smith	ONE Pro Cycling	+ 52
4	David Per	Adria Mobil	s.t.
5	Carlos Barbero	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.

Rund um Köln, Result

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Alexey Lutsenko	Astana Pro Team	4h39'25
2	Enrique Sanz	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 21
3	Sondre Holst Enger	IAM Cycling	s.t.
4	Tom Slagter	Cannondale Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
5	Carlos Barbero	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.

Int. Grand Prix Judendorf, Result

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Jan Tratnik	Amplatz - BMC	4h13'31
2	Carlos Barbero	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
3	Clemens Fankhauser	Tirol Cycling Team	s.t.
4	Markus Eibegger	Team Felbermayr Simplon Wels	s.t.
5	Janier Acevedo	Team Jamis	s.t.

Without much talent against the clock, our focus lay on the road race. Bilbao and Barbero were our obvious picks. The route was fairly towards climbing, so we could not really make a numbers’ game out of the race and instead we stayed in the pack for a while but decided to sent up a guy upfront. He held himself up for most of the race but the tough circumstances of the race made him soon fatigued, especially since the last 20k promised to be a brutal mash-up.


When Contador attacked, we stayed put as Movistar rode a hard bargain. Pistolero rode fiercely away from us, and the spanish world tour squad did not get onto Contador. So, the spanish Grand Tour winner won the road race. In the downhill of the ultimate climb, Bilbao and Barbero positioned themselves right at the front after suffering up the climb.

With lots of kick, Barbero and especially Bilbao started their sprint and they finished it great off. Bilbao came second in total, finishing the road championships on the podium. Barbero was just two places further down.

Euskaltel-Euskadi is now back on Spain’s map for good!

National Championships ITT Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Haimar Zubeldia	Trek - Segafredo	36'57
2	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 1
3	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	+ 7
4	Rubén Plaza	Orica - GreenEDGE	+ 11
5	Luis León Sánchez	Astana Pro Team	+ 27

National Championships Road Race Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Alberto Contador	Tinkoff	5h16'07
2	Pello Bilbao	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 31
3	Daniel Moreno	Movistar Team	s.t.
4	Carlos Barbero	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
5	Luis León Sánchez	Astana Pro Team	s.t.

Our next race and right at the start of the national championships. Sanz was our man for the stage wins and after coming close twice on the two opening stages, Sanz sealed the deal on the third day and won his stage.

The next day, another one of our guys finally get his long deserved win. Xabier Zandio attacked on the final climb hill and in the small peloton there was no one to match him that day. He arrived comfortably over a minute ahead of the first small chasing group.


With his win attracting interest, we also got message a few days later that he'd be leaving Euskaltel - Euskadi to join Caja Rural next year

Special:	Zandio GC win and stage win
	Sanz stage win, two second places

Course Cycliste de Solidarnosc

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Xabier Zandio	Euskaltel - Euskadi	17h42'53
2	Jordi Simón	Verva ActiveJet Pro Cycling Team	+ 1'25
3	Domen Novak	Adria Mobil	+ 1'27
4	Maximilian Schachmann	Klein Constantia	+ 1'48
5	Rob Britton	Rally Cycling	+ 2'02

The orange ones hit up the red country. 13 stages make for a long race but with Snaz, Bilbao and Zandio present we have potential for stage wins and GC glory. Unfortunately we also got word that Enrique Sanz will be leaving for Tinkoff. Looking at his score this season, we certainly understand why.


With many big teams present, there was ample opposition. Especially because some guys who aren’t leading to often wanted to lay claim for bigger tasks. So it wasn’t surprising that the 13 days were tough racing, with minutes instead of seconds as measurement of the margin.

Pello Bilbao showed a strong performance, consistently finishing in the Top 10 once again. Our sprinters were less lucky, since they did not come close to a stage win at all. At least Bilbao secured 6th in the GC, wild terrier Atapuma won the GC

Tour of Qinghai Lake

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	John Darwin Atapuma	BMC Racing Team	47h36'41
2	Stefano Pirazzi	Bardiani - CSF	+ 56
3	Edoardo Zardini	Bardiani - CSF	+ 6'18
4	Michael Rogers	Tinkoff	s.t.
5	Ben Hermans	BMC Racing Team	+ 6'46
6	Pello Bilbao	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 7'37
7	Sérgio Paulinho	Tinkoff	+ 8'09
8	Matteo Busato	Wilier - Southeast	+ 9'05
9	Giulio Ciccone	Bardiani - CSF	+ 11'23
10	Jesús Hernández	Tinkoff	+ 11'58