Euskaltel-Euskadi has always been proud of scouting and developing talents. The new Redux version wants to do it in the same tradition. With the promotion to Pro Continental ranks almost secure, Euskaltel-Euskadi will need some top talent though, to stay there successfully.

From the free agent market:
Víctor De La Parte 30 – Climber

From the development squad:
Aznar Heliodoro 19 – CLIMBER
Narciso Herráez 22 – CLIMBER
Sergio Muez 20 – CLIMBER

Especially in young basque Sergio Muez the team has great hopes, whilst the contract additions of Duran Arkatiz and Garcia Ricardo put the team at a man number of 11 riders for next year.

Meanwhile, Haimar Zubeldia has said that he will not return to Euskaltel - Euskadi, whilst Igor Anton will retire after this season. Having not been able to reach his former level, Anton rather retires in the World Tour.

Euskaltel-Euskadi's Markel Irizar is also said to retire after this season, whilst Enrique Sanz is known to join Tinkoff.

We returned to basque country at the Cricuito de Getxo. But not in winning ways as Giovanni Visconti took victory that day. At this low-ranked classic, Bilbao was our best man in the bunch sprint, coming 10th, Barbero 12th.

But Circuito de Getxo was just preparation at that moment for one ouf big season targets.

The sponsor wanted a stage win here but secretly we were aiming for even more than a mere stage win. With Bilbao having a great season so far, we were even hoping for an outside shot on the GC. Little did we know at the first day that Majka and Tinkoff would wreck us on the first day, an uphill-cobbled finish. However with a fifth place that day, a mere half a minute down on Majka, Bilbao was still close enough.


At the other big mountain stage, which ended at Lagunas de Neila, Majka then ultimately distanced everybody but let breakaway rider Clement the victory of the day. Or so the polish rider claims. Bilbao managed to climb up to 4th in GC after finishing 2 minutes down on Majka in group of Movistars. We still hadn’t secured our stage win at that point. Luckily Enrique Sanz was ready to grant us a farewell present and showed his new team Tinkoff already how strong he was.


Sanz was the stage in some great rain ahead of a Katusha duo. Also thanks to a formidable leadout by Bilbao who was again made headlines by being a teamleader and a team helper!

Unfortunately the team wasn’t able to repay Bilbao’s effort in the final Team Time Trial. He lost a place and finished the Vuelta a Burgos still within in the Top 5 at fifth.

Special:

Stage Win Sanz

Vuelta a Burgos, Final Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Rafał Majka	Tinkoff	14h54'17
2	Steven Kruijswijk	Team LottoNL - Jumbo	+ 1'24
3	Ben Hermans	BMC Racing Team	+ 2'22
4	Beñat Intxausti	Team Sky	+ 2'37
5	Pello Bilbao	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 2'40
6	Sergey Chernetskiy	Team Katusha	+ 2'45
7	Clément Chevrier	IAM Cycling	+ 3'08
8	Javier Moreno	Movistar Team	+ 3'13
9	Carlos Verona	Etixx - Quick Step	+ 3'16
10	Rubén Fernández	Movistar Team	+ 3'38

As some of you might know, I went to ride some Tour de France mountains this summer. When you head up Col du Tourmalet, Mont Ventoux et al. it's great to see all those names written down and people with such a passion for the sport you love. Of course in the Pyrenees, I saw a lot of basque riders and I even made a portrait for a group of basque cyclists.


When I was riding the Col de Peyresourde on a 100k+ trip of Col d'Aspin - Peyresourde - Col d'Aspin, I headed into the mountain and in the first kilometer, I saw this picture above. I decided to turn around for a brief second and take a picture of it, because hey - you don't see the name of your story painted onto the streets of a famous mountain every day, am I right?

Thought I share this little gem with you.