Gorka impressive on the pavé

I'm not going to go overboard with this, but I think maybe, just maybe, Euskaltel have found a rider capable of delivering results on the pavé. His name is Gorka Izagirre, the guy I was raving about after the Tour Down Under. Yesterday, in the second stage of the Driedaagsa De Panne, he went on the attack on a small climb a full 100 kilometres out and drew with him, among others, Gasparotto and Paolini. For a good while he managed to stay with the front group he created, but with 40 kilometres left just couldn't withstand it and dropped back. Nonetheless he finished in a small group containing the likes of Oss, Hoste, Gasparotto, Bernucci and Ballan. Not bad. That gave him a good 27th place on the stage, 11:12 down. Javier and Romain did okay to finish 15:21 back, while Iñaki and Pablo came in 26:09 down. Sadly the on-form Aitor Galdós had to throw in the towel. His crash yesterday and the subsequent pain in his knee made it unbearable to ride and, after being heroic for 105 kilometres, had to call it quits. More on his injury later.