Last year Lobato got us our first win under the current management here so naturally we decided to come back.
Lobato is here as well though this time as a helper wearing Movistar colours, while we have our hopes on Verboven instead.

In general the starting field is quite a bit stronger this year, but we feel that both a good GC and Verbovens foisr pro win is possible with a bit of luck.

The opening stage went pretty much as planend as Garikoitz made sure we were represented in the break.
To our slight surprise they made it all the way, though Garikoitz was the weakest of the five. With Rudy finishing second in the main group we have every reason to be happy.

On stage 2 we had Bilbao in the break but this time Movistar tore things apart leaving only Verboven in the 21-rider group fighting for the stage win.
To be honest it was quite disappointing that he didn't do better in the sprint as he also dropped just outside the GC top 10

Stage 3 turned out to be another one for the break, so it was very good to see Pello in there getting us a much appreciated stage podium while GC leader Hägg's NetApp wrecked havoc on the hills towards the finish in sucha way that Rudy gained a lot of time in the GC on his competition.

Stage 4 turned into a much more hectic finale than expected where Rudy missed it when the big names started moving. Still he defended his GC top 10 so not too much were lost.
Perez represented us in the break on this one.
The following day it was Florencios turn to go in the break while Verboven sprinted to a good 5th place avoiding to get caught behind cracks on the flat once again.
Hopefully we'll be able to avoid our usual bad luck throughout the rest pf the race as well as the rest of the season.

Orbe tried to continue the wave of breaks but Team Sky wouldn't allow it and the day ended up in anonymity for us.

Stage 7 was the perfect finish with Pello taking a stage win out of the only just surviving break and Rudy crossing the line on the last pointsgiving space while cheering for Bilbao.
A show of both great tactics and team spirit.

Then a solid GC result for Rudy doesn't make thing any worse…

	Best Rider	Place	Time
Stage 1	Garikoitz Bravo	5th	+ 2'15
	Rudy Verboven	7th	+ 3'53
Stage 2	Rudy Verboven	13th	s.t.
Stage 3	Pello Bilbao	3rd	s.t.
Stage 4	Rudy Verboven	9th	+ 42
Stage 5	Rudy Verboven	5th	s.t.
Stage 6	Rudy Verboven	11th	+ 1'10
Stage 7	Pello Bilbao	WIN	s.t.
	Rudy Verboven	10th	s.t.

1	Heimdal Hägg	Team NetApp - Endura	21h46'49
6	Rudy Verboven	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 3'29
31	Pello Bilbao	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 15'37
53	Xavier Florencio	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 18'26
60	Enrique Sanz	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 19'31
82	Rubén Pérez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 22'40
85	Koldo Fernández	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 23'05
88	Garikoitz Bravo	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 23'34
100	Haritz Orbe	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 26'47

1	Benedikt Weschenbach	Sky Procycling	68
3	Pello Bilbao	Euskaltel - Euskadi	57
4	Rudy Verboven	Euskaltel - Euskadi	47
31	Xavier Florencio	Euskaltel - Euskadi	15
38	Garikoitz Bravo	Euskaltel - Euskadi	12

1	Igor Boev	RusVelo	12
3	Pello Bilbao	Euskaltel - Euskadi	11
19	Xavier Florencio	Euskaltel - Euskadi	3

1	Heimdal Hägg	Team NetApp - Endura	21h46'49
4	Rudy Verboven	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 3'29
17	Pello Bilbao	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 15'37
32	Enrique Sanz	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 19'31
40	Garikoitz Bravo	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 23'34
46	Haritz Orbe	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 26'47

1	Sky Procycling	65h36'10
8	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 15'01

mvhoogdalem wrote:

Hello mr. Etxeberdea,

Do you have a racing schedule for me yet? I have been preparing myself for my first race, but I have no idea when I am expected to start.

~ Cristiano de las Campos

As an homage to the many Africans in the series this year the next race in EHST will take place in South Africa on a curcuit around Nelspruit finishing on top of the climb.


With a total of 26 km climbed and an accumulated hight gain of almost 3000 m combined with the 11% sectors towards the finish line this is one for the real strong punchers such as Rodríguez, Ion Izagirre and Kwiatkowski.

The home fans will mainly have their hopes set on Meintjes.

There will be no hiding and the sprinters will hate this day with all their heart, while it will give some further clues towards who is favourites for the overall.

Konovalovas is the first to attack today while several Africans are near the front of the peloton.

Venter is the only of them to follow up on the attack. The last 4 in the early break are Fernández, Palmarsson, Owsian and Rollin.

As usual they are allowed to go without much hazzle and hit the climb for the first time with a gap of 6'43

None of the breakers seem to really enjoy the climb, but they still manage to expand the gap to 7'30 at the top. Still 5 rounds to go though.
150km and 8'15

131 km left and the break passes the summit for the 2nd time with 7'57 and shrinking to the peloton.

98 km and 5'53
OPQS, Catalunya and Ireland leads the pack into the final three rounds.
80 km and 4'47
70 km and 4'04

60 km and 3'21. Not much happening right now.
50 km and 2'52
40 km and 2'24

Owsian tries to get rid of teh other breakers before entering the final round.

Others follow up and surprisingly it's Koldo Fernández who gets over the summit the fastest.

30 km and 1'28
Poland is really putting down the hammer.

15 km and 53 seconds. Looks like it will come right down to the final climb.

Koldo and Konovalovas makes a final move with 10 km to go only to see Rodríguez and Martin come blasting by from behind.

Many follow and 10 riders enter the final 4 km uphill section in front with Fernández chasing solo behind after another attack out of the peloton.
The 10 are: Kwiatkowski, Kangert, Verboven, Spilak, I.Izagirre, Intxausti, Martin, Rodríguez, Kakhi and Majka.

Many moves are made in front but noone seems to have what it takes today.

From the pack it's Roche acting as chasing bunny for another 6 man group featuring Kim, Antón, M.Nieve, Taaramäe, Owniak and Bakelandts.

Purito leads into the final km after Verboven made it hard a km before that.

600 m to the top and he is passed by his old teammate Spilak, who has Izagirre in his wheel.

And there comes Intxausti to mix in as well.

Purito starts cheering a while before the line.

Turns out the South African organizers didn't have the time taker the same place as the line. Good thing the riders apparently already saw that on the previous passes or this could have become embarrasing...

Roche leads in the chasers after a very strong effort on the climb.

Further back as many as 77 riders are in the group sprinting for 18th with Veilleux beating de las Campos and Landa.

The Sagastín Award goes to Koldo Fernández for his brave but foolish insisting on trying to hold a gap on the peloton in the finish, while also being one of the most active from the break before getting caught the first time around.

1	Joaquím Rodríguez	Catalunya	5h24'15
2	Simon Spilak	Katusha Team	s.t.
3	Beñat Intxausti	Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	s.t.
4	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi Young	s.t.
5	Daniel Martin	Ireland	+ 14
6	Rajesh Kakhi	Asia	s.t.
7	Tanel Kangert	Baltic Way	s.t.
8	Michał Kwiatkowski	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	s.t.
9	Rudy Verboven	Vlaanderen	s.t.
10	Rafal Majka	Poland	s.t.

1	Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	16h16'22
2	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team	+ 14
3	Poland	s.t.
4	Asia	s.t.
5	Baltic Way	s.t.
6	Euskaltel - Euskadi Young	+ 1'15
7	Catalunya	s.t.
8	Vlaanderen	+ 1'29
9	Ireland	s.t.
10	Euskaltel - Navarre	+ 2'26

1		Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi Young	49
2		Joaquím Rodríguez	Catalunya	44
3		Michał Kwiatkowski	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	43
4		Simon Spilak	Katusha Team	34
5		Daniel Martin	Ireland	32
6		Rudy Verboven	Vlaanderen	32
7		Beñat Intxausti	Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	28
8		Tanel Kangert	Baltic Way	27
9		Igor Antón	Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	26
10		Po-ding Kim	Asia	26

1		Euskaltel - Euskadi Old	60
2		Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	45
3		Poland	45
4		Euskaltel - Euskadi Young	34
5		Asia	33
6		Vlaanderen	30
7		Baltic Way	29
8		Catalunya	29
9		Astana Pro Team	23
10		Ireland	22

The next race will see the peloton back in Euskadi.

Dippofix wrote:
Hmm. Allright Dan, not too bad.

How exactly are the country rankings determined? Pretty interesting to see Dan outscoring the entire Irish team (including himself ) by ten points.

We had sent a team built around Rudy Verboven expecting a good result from him.

Since it can be a hard race to control we decided to sent Durán in the break, which was exactly why we signed him after some strong efforts in the EHST last year.
The break got caught right before the line by a small group featuring all the big names, including Rudy.

Rudy made sure to watch last years winner Sagan closely, but unfortunaltely they both got blocked and finished well outside top 10.

At least Arkaitz held on to an advantage long enough to score a few points as well., even though it would have been nice to see him follow his breakaway companions to battle for the win.

1	Mathias Von Triesenberg	Team NetApp - Endura	4h31'55
14	Arkaitz Durán	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 34
17	Rudy Verboven	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
101	Xavier Florencio	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 13'14
115	Garikoitz Bravo	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 13'21
119	Romain Sicard	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 13'48
127	Koldo Fernández	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 13'54
131	Enrique Sanz	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 14'13

With Ion, Igor and Rudy here we have high hopes for a solid GC result as all three could potentially do something.

Stage 1 was never at the top of priorities, but at least the results showed that our leades are both fit and aware, which bodes well for the future.

Stage 2 was the same deal. We stayed out of trouble comfortably without wasting any energy on a day that didn't mean much.
While the general level of activity on stage 3 was disappointing Ion got himself into a decent GC position for tha last half of the race.
That inspired Ricardo García to go in teh break on the fourth day. Even though the group survived all day Ricardo was far from the win. Still our first points of the race was nice.

On the queen stage to Willunga hill Igor went out in the early break and did well even though our tactics failed as they didn't last long enough to battle ofr the stage win but also was caught to close the the final climb to act as a good launching pad.
Nevertheless Ion put in a good sprint taking 4th on the stage and clombing to 8th in the GC.

The final stage turned much more eventful than expected. Florencio went in the early break and in the finale things went crazu with echelons.
Verboven got caught behind, but Ion was perfectly placed to defend his GC.

Rudy got back in touch but had nothing left for the sprint.

	Best Rider	Place	Time
Stage 1	Ion Izagirre	15th	s.t.
Stage 2	Rudy Verboven	14th	s.t.
Stage 3	Ion Izagirre	11th	+ 2'42
Stage 4	Ricardo García	6th	s.t.
Stage 5	Ion Izagirre	4th	s.t.
Stage 6	Xavier Florencio	23rd	s.t.

1	Alexander Kristoff	Katusha Team	18h26'59
9	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 1'06
41	Xavier Florencio	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 6'48
49	Igor Antón	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 8'05
50	Rudy Verboven	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 8'08
73	Ricardo García	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 9'10
84	Rubén Pérez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 9'43
116	Egoitz García	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 12'02

1	Alexander Kristoff	Katusha Team	49
21	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	12
28	Ricardo García	Euskaltel - Euskadi	10
37	Igor Antón	Euskaltel - Euskadi	5

1	Pyroli Feunard	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	26
6	Igor Antón	Euskaltel - Euskadi	10
21	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	2

1	Rajesh Kakhi	Team Champion System	18h27'21
3	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 44
23	Rudy Verboven	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 7'46

1	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	55h28'33
9	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 6'18

All-in-all a less impressiv race than we had hoped. Mainly the stage to old Willunga was much less eventful than we had anticipated and hoped resulting in too small gaps allowing a sprinter to win the GC.

Obviously it wasn't according to the plan to score fewer points than we did last year either - good thing we improved in both the other two races already done with...

Since we have seen the big teams being quite bad at chasing down breaks this season we decided to send a man out there just in case, while Verboven should save himself for the finish.

Sanz became that person and did well to help the break last as long as possible.

Meanwhile the rest of the team made sure to keep Verboven close to the front of the peloton to avoid bad luck.
Garaté got away towards the finish and Sanz was too tired to really battle for the sprint behind. Still a good result for him.

Verboven finished with the other favourites and scored a few points more as well.
Also Xavier did well to win the sprint for 20th

1	Juan Manuel Gárate	Movistar Team	3h32'29
5	Enrique Sanz	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 27
14	Rudy Verboven	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 1'45
20	Xavier Florencio	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 4'40
69	Arkaitz Durán	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
71	Romain Sicard	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
79	Koldo Fernández	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
80	Rubén Pérez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
83	Garikoitz Bravo	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.

We started off with a blast in Gabon with several good stage results crowned by young Bilbao getting both his first podium and later win while Rudy got us a solid GC results in spite of the break from the first day taking the big honour.

That was followed by a slightly less impressive Tour Down Under, where we achieved our GC goal, while underachieving when it came to stage results.

Strade Bianche was a weird race won by the break and with many of the favourites including Rudy blocked by slower riders in the finale.
At least one of those were Durán giving us two pointscorers in the race to compensate.

Just as in Bianche GP La Marsaillaise was won out of the early break. Good thing we had Sanz in there getting his first good result after joining us.
We had hoped for slightlu more from him though seeing as he's supposed to develop into our sprint leader in the not so distant future.
Rudy and Xavier picking up a bit more points makes this a pretty good race for us in that aspect.

Of these four races we rode the first three last year as well and seeing that we increased our points score with 71 we will take that as a good omen for the season to come.

We also rode two stages in Oman. Nothing happened and the race will be covered next month when it's done.

Oh and then the EHST have kicked off with two races. Even though we didn't win any of them it has been good to see Ion being strong and versatile enough to take the lead in the EHST rankings, while the Euskaltel-Euskadi team composed of the oldest half of the 16 riders on one of our Euskadi teams have taken the lead in the team rankings.
Hopefully we'll see more of both Euskaltel-Navarre and our Euskaltel Sprinters in the coming races.

	Name	Age	Days	Points	Pts/day
	Izagirre, Ion	24	6	68	11,33
	Bilbao, Pello	23	7	45	6,43
	Verboven, Rudy	22	15	90	6,00
	Durán, Arkaitz	27	2	10	5,00
	Sanz, Enrique	24	9	24	2,67
	García, Ricardo	25	6	8	1,33
	Bravo, Garikoitz	24	9	6	0,67
	Florencio, Xavier	34	15	8	0,53
	Pérez, Ruben	32	14	0	0
	Fernandez, Koldo	32	9	0	0
	Orbe, Haritz	22	7	0	0
	Antón, Igor	30	6	0	0
	García, Egoitz	27	6	0	0
	Sicard, Romain	26	2	0	0

This time we'll take a look back at when the Vuelta came back to Euskadi in 2011.
A stage that was won by our very own Igor Antón of course.'