Samu 2nd while Amets crashes

It was once again an eventful day for the team in today's fifth stage of the País Vasco. It started off with Amets and Egoi, yes, those two once again, making it into the break of the day. The duo looked strong, especially so Amets who grabbed more than enough mountain points underway to secure the climber's jersey. Big achievement! With 20 clicks to go the group broke up, with Amets proving the strongest, distancing the rest of the guys. But once in front, he crashed and was passed by eventual winner Rodríguez, Efimkin and Navarro. Luckily he got up again and completed the race, but still it was a major opportunity lost for the diminutive climber. He hurt his right collarbone and was taken to hospital straight after crossing the line to find out whether it's a fracture or just a bruising. Once Rodríguez was alone up front the chasing started. Euskaltel did some good work to reel him in, but it wasn't enough. Samu eventually led home the trio of himself, Valverde and Horner for second place 14 seconds down. Beñat came in with a select group six seconds later to hang on to his fifth place going in to tomorrow's concluding ITT. Iván had another good ride and came home 21st, 1:06 down. Rubén, Egoi, JJ, Alan and Amets all came in way back, more than 7 minutes in arrears. Overall though a very good team performance. Beñat is just two riders and four seconds off the podium, so watch out for him tomorrow. And, of course, watch out for Samu. He'll win it. Watch this space.