Koldo close as crash hinders Romain

It was a frustrating day for the team in Paris-Nice yesterday. On the first climb of the day, the Col du Murs, Romain was caught up in one of the numerous crashes and had to give chase along with a lot of other riders, including guys like Tony Martin. They weren't successful though, and Romain lost a massive 16:50 today, thus ruining his overall race which had started quite well. It was quite a hilly stage, and only two Euskaltel riders were in the select group coming in to the finish in Aix en Provence; Samu, of course, and a very impressive Koldo. While most of the sprinters came in way back, Koldo was right up there at the very end showing he's become a much better climber over the winter. Awesome! He didn't quite have the legs to pull it off though, coming home 7th. As mentioned, Samu was in that same group, placing 19th and keeping hold of his 5th place on GC. Iván came in 46 seconds back, Egoi 1:08, Beñat and Gorka 2:36 and Mikel and Romain 16:50. Tough luck, but that's bike racing for you.