Euskaltel blown away

On a windy and crash-marred day in the Paris-Nice, Samu lost 17 seconds to Valverde, Sánchez and a number of other overall candidates. The infamous strong winds in the Loir Valley were out in full force today and, in a customary showing of a lack of smartness and knowhow, Euskaltel lost out big time. Caisse d'Epargne and Columbia set a furious pace at the head of the pack a number of times in the last 30 kilometres of the stage, and every time all Euskaltel riders got caught behind. Like they've done all the time the last few years. I don't know who to point the finger at, the directors or the riders? But what I do know is that it's high time Euskaltel, and by Euskaltel I mean all the riders and all the staff, sit down and talk tactics. It's not good enough, not nearly good enough, to always get caught out when the pack splits in the wind. It's not rocket science, it's pretty easy: stay at the front. That way you're less likely to end up at the back when stuff like this happens. But for them to stay at the front someone on the team has to learn how to read a race, and I'm afraid almost every Euskaltel rider and director has got some home-work to do. This might seem harsh, but it's time we got serious.

Just to make matters worse, Koldo and Iván both hit the deck today. But they got up and finished the stage though, so they should be ready to go by tomorrow. As for results, Koldo, Samu, Romain, Egoi and Gorka ended up 17 seconds back on the group containing Valverde, Sánchez, Joaquín Rodriguez, Boom, Voigt, Kolobnev, Roche, Tony Martin, Kreuziger, Miller and Ivanov. Iván, Mikel and Beñat ended up even further back, coming in a massive 7:12 down. Not good.