Baby watch: Basque struggle

Naturgas trio Mikel Bizkarra, Aitor Ocampos and Pello Bilbao suffered big time in the first stage of the Giro Bio, or Baby Giro as it's known, yesterday. The youngsters found the going way too tough in Italy and ended up way back. Bizkarra finished with a big group 8:31 down, while Ocampos came in about two minutes later. Pello Bilbao surprisingly struggled the most, coming in 12:46 adrift in 154th place. The rest of the Pays Basque team, though, did better. Igor Romero came home with the second group, no more than 37 seconds in arrears, while Ugaitz Artola came in alongside Bizkarra and Mikel Filgueirea alongside Ocampos. Not a great start results-wise, but they're here to learn, not to win.