Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Euskaltel strong on Mallorca

Euskaltel had another great day on Mallorca today. Beñat sprinted to a great 7th place, while Haimar, Jon and Beñat, in that order, are now placed 4th, 5th and 6th on GC.

Euskaltel got off to a good start with Iñigo getting into a big break. The break got reeled back in later on the day, but Iñigo wasn't finished. He attacked again with three others, and they looked like they might stay away for a moment. Eventually they were reeled back in with 20 km to go, and now Euskaltel set a furious pace at the head of the pack. Rubén and Javier grabbed first and second on the last Metas Volantes in the process, but they weren't able to avoid another sprint. Aitor didn't ride today, so Euskaltel had to place their faith in Beñat. He pulled off quite a good sprint, and came home 7th. Haimar, Jon, Gorka, Javier, Rubén and Iñigo were also in that first group, placing 13th, 15th, 28th, 29th, 38th and 48th respectively. Furhter down there was Iván in 56th place, 26 seconds down, while Lander and Josu both came home 11:57 in arrears. This strong overall performance means Euskaltel still leads the team rankings, while this is how the individual GC looks with two stages remaining:

  • 4th, Haimar Zubeldia, 0:03
  • 5th, Jon Bru, 0:03
  • 6th, Beñat Albizuri, 0:03
  • 16th, Gorka Verdugo, 0:03
  • 33rd, Iván Velasco, 2:40

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good results I guess. Didn't know Beñat could finish this fast. And the site of the Vuelta a Mallorca also mentioned an attack of Zubeldia:

"En los últimos kilómetros se han sucedido los intentos, desde Rodrigo (Andalucía), hasta el propio Toni Colom (Astana) o Haimar Zubeldia (Euskaltel Euskadi), pero el trabajo de Caisse d’Epargne ha mantenido al grupo unido hasta la recta final, en la que Rojas ha aprovechado la ayuda de Valverde para imponerse y sumar así el primer triunfo de un español en la Challenge 08 y estrenar el casillero de victorias españolas en la presenta temporada."

Anonymous said...

Zubeldia-attack? Not too often you see that! :D

Magnus said...

It's true actually, he attacked together with Toni Colom, failed to mention it in the report. Haimar's form looks to be coming on in leaps and bound now...

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