Weekend sum-up

Well, it`s certainly been a good few days for Euskaltel, huh? Unai Etxebarria showed what a quality rider he is by staying away for much of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Unai is really a class-act, and showed that today in such a big race as the Liège. He`s been in the business for some years now, but he`s just getting stronger and stronger it seems. Samu also had a good day on the bike, coming home 13th. Though Samu perhaps hasn`t been as high up on the rankings in these three classics as he may have wanted, he`s still looking tremendously strong. Mikel Astarloza and Gorka Verdugo also rode strongly today, by claiming 38th and 39th respectively, no more than 1:21 back.

In Rioja the whole Euskaltel team was superb. Three riders inside the top-13 overall, together with second, fifth, eigth and tenth places on stages, is awesome. Dioni Galparsoro seems to be back to his best, claiming 4th overall. Dioni has been so unlucky with injuries and stuff the last years, so it`s fantastic to see him back to his best again. He really deserves it. Another pleasant surprise was the 6th place overall to Euskaltel new-comer Amets Txurruka. Amets has been rather anonymous so far this season, but this result will no doubt kick-start an exciting season for him. Amets is one of the more talented Spanish riders around, and it`ll be interesting to see what he can do come the Tour in July. Igor Antón once again showed his form is absolutely superb. Though, unfortunately for him and Euskaltel, he fell from a potential stage- and overall win on the last descent of stage 2. What`s more, he came 2nd in the mountains competition, so he`ll no doubt leave Rioja feeling a little angry. But, the most important thing is that he`s looking more than good ahead of his first Tour in July. Just to under-line Euskaltel`s strong showing in Rioja, they placed 2nd in the team rankings, behind an all-conquering Caisse d`Epargne outfit. So, congratulations to Euskaltel on a superb weekend of racing!