Luxembourg stage 2&3

Due to work commitments I wasn't able to report on stage 2 yesterday, so here comes a short recap of yesterday's stage 2, as well as today's stage 3:

Stage 2 was a quite hilly stage, and sadly none of the guys managed to factor in the results. Mikel did reasonably well to come home with a group only 58 seconds down on popular victor Schleck, while Aitor G and Jonathan came in 30 seconds further back. Rubén and Aitor H came in three minutes adrift, with the latter still on the search for top form. Mikel and Gorka Izagirre both weren't up to speed as they rolled in a massive 9:43 down. Ouch. Sergio struggled even more, being classified as HD and as a result out of the race. Not good.

Today's stage went better for the team, with Aitor Hernández getting into the break of the day. Good on him. Naturally it didn't last, but still a good effort. As a testament to the tough parcours on the menu today, only 27 riders made it in with the main pack, among them Mikel in 13th place and Jonathan in 17th. Good stuff from them. Rubén, finding the profile a bit too tough for his liking, came in 2:08 back, while Gorka ended up at 4:34. Aitor H eventually came in 5:35 back after being reeled in towards the end of the stage, while Miguel and Aitor G both came in with the last group 7.22 adrift.

With one stage left to go the Euskaltel riders are well out of the running as far as overall honours are concerned, with Jonathan being off in 24th place.