Orbea will tomorrow start their last race of 2010: the demanding three-day Tour d'Empordá in and around the cycling haven that is Girona. The team will send seven riders including Aitor Ocampos of Naturgas, who earned his chance at this level by finishing as best Basque in the Tres Días de Alava back in April. The other six lining up will be Noel Martín, Jon Aberasturi, Ricardo García, Joseba Larralde, Xabier Zabalo and Andoni Blázquez.
According to reports on Bici Ciclismo, and on this very blog some time ago, the signing of Pierre Cazaux was Euskaltel's last ahead of the 2011 campaign. In addition to Cazaux, Mikel Landa and Jon Izagirre will make the jump from Orbea, meaning Euskaltel will welcome three new riders to the team in January 2011. Beñat Intxausti's departure has been well documented, as has the ones of Sergio De Lis and Aitor Hernández, and it now transpires Aitor Galdós will, like Bici Ciclismo hinted a few weeks back, not receive a new deal. He's now a free agent, but he probably won't have difficulties finding a new team due to his qualities and palmarès. All the other riders on this year's team will stay on for at least another year, meaning Euskaltel's plantilla will consist of 23 riders in 2011. Full list:
Despite me publishing a post last week titled "Euskaltel sign Frenchman", the Frenchman in question, Pierre Cazaux, hasn't actually penned the deal. But he's likely to though. The team have offered the FDJ rider a two-year deal, and the 26-year-old is expected to make a decision on whether to accept or rebuff the offer later this very Tuesday. Stay tuned.
Romain Sicard will today put pen to paper on a four-year deal with the team, believe it or not. By signing this extensive contract, the young Frenchman will make history at Euskaltel: never has a rider signed a contract this long. Not even Ibán Mayo, who, after his sensational 2003 season, signed a contract for three years. To tie down Sicard on such a deal is a coup for Euskaltel and the rider alike I reckon. Sicard is virtually a guarantee for success in the years to come. It's not for nothing he's being billed as France's next Tour de France winner. And the fact that he's France's best bet for glory in the Grand Boucle is likely to secure Euskaltel a place in the race for the foreseeable future. A canny move by Galdeano and Madariaga no doubt. Staying with a Spanish squad is also likely to benefit the slightly shy and self-effacing Sicard, as he will to some extent escape the pressure and the massive expectations laid upon him by his countrymen. To be somewhat 'protected' from all the hype will do him the world of good. Too many precocious French riders have suffered and subsequently disappointed after being labelled 'the next Hinault' or 'the new Jalabert'. By staying away from it all, Sicard might just develop into the rider France have longed for for so many painful years.
Naturgas Energía are officially done for the season. The Vuelta a Cantabria, which ended on Sunday, was the last race on their calendar, and the youngsters will now get to take a well-earned rest during the winter. Cantabria was hard for the team. Bad weather marred the event, but the guys in red still didn't hide in the pack and were in the main break every single day. Grijalba, who enjoyed a great start to the year and who's looked strong throughout the campaign, got into the moves on day one and three, while Aitor Ocampos, who's also stood out from the rest, got in on the action on the second day. Top results were hard to come by, though, with Carlos Barbero's seventh on stage three the best result. On GC, Ocampos was best of the bunch in 21st, while Grijalba was 48th, Barbero 55th, Legarra 69th and Carazo 80th. Aritz Bagües, who's penned a deal with Orbea for next season, placed a strong sixth just behind a certain Moises Dueñas (You still remember that guy, right?), so he looks to be the real deal. DS at Naturgas, Iñigo Urretxua, was pleased eventhough the team left the race without any results to show for their efforts. "We've been aggressive and protagonists every day", he told la Fundación Euskadi's website. "We conclude our season on a high."
As expected, Beñat Intxausti will not feature in the Tour de Vendée on Sunday. His place will be taken by the on-form Pablo Urtasun, who'll look to lend Koldo a hand in the likely scenario of a sprint finish. Full line-up: Amets Txurruka, Mikel Nieve, Koldo Fernández, Gorka Izagirre, Pablo Urtasun, Javier Aramendía, JJ Oroz and Jonathan Castroviejo.
The last stage of the Vuelta a España concluded today with the total drag that is a final stage in a GT. The 85km stage to Madrid obviously ended in a mad dash for the line, while there were no major changes to GC. Farrar impressively bested Cavendish, while Koldo couldn't muster better than 13th. I was quietly optimistic Koldo might be able to spring a surprise today, but it wasn't to be. Nieve and co. all came through the stage safe and sound, meaning the final GC looks like this:
As a team Euskaltel finished eighth, which is actually quite sensational given Igor's abandonment while in red, and Beñat's no-show. Sign of strength in depth no doubt. Beñat is currently undergoing some tests to figure out exactly what's wrong. I'm thinking mononocleosis or something in that direction, but obviously I'm no doctor. But Beñat being Ibán Mayo reincarnate, mono would be fitting... Anyway, Amets got stronger as the race unfolded and looks something like his former self, rediscovering his climbing legs and all. He's Euskaltel's Robin van Persie, always getting injured when approaching top form, so if he can stear clear of collarbone breaks and illness for the remainder of the season, he should be due a standout season in 2011. Mikel was obviously the revelation of the race; finally Euskaltel have uncovered another climbing ace. Verdugo and Oroz were evidently off top form after peaking for the Tour, but they still did themselves and the team proud through some unselfish and inspiring team-work. Egoi Martínez didn't really get the time to show his credentials due to the crash, while the sprinting department of Koldo and Pablo had their chances of success compromised by having to ride in support of Igor for large portions of the race. You won't hear them complaining, though... All in all a fabulous performance all round, full stop.
Euskaltel did not leave their mark on today's stage 19 from Piedrahíta to Toledo, insteading opting to save forces for tomorrow's big showdown on the Bola del Mundo. Some of the guys actually did try to get into the break early on anyway, but they fortunately didn't succeed. The stage-finish was a little harder than anticipated, resulting in most of the sprinters getting eliminated. Koldo was one of the casualties, rolling in in 30th place at 15 seconds along with Oroz and Nieve. Txurruka was 36 back, Verdugo 53 and Urtasun 1:03. I assume Euskaltel will do their utmost to light up tomorrow's penultimate stage to the top of the Bola del Mundo in search of another stage-victory. Mikel Nieve is likely to be Euskaltel's best hope of achieving that goal, but I suspect Amets, JJ and/or Gorka Verdugo will try to infiltrate the early break. It's going to be fireworks.
After taking out the overall Torneo Sub23 individual- and team classifications last week, Naturgas Energía is aiming for more this weekend. The final couple of races in the Torneo Lehendakari series, or Lehendakari Txapelketa if you'd like, are being staged on Saturday and Sunday in Oñate and Bergara respectively. With Igor Merino situated in third and Pello Bilbao in fifth, the team is primed for an attack on the big prize. Ramón Domene is currently heading the standings ahead of his Seguros Bilbao companion Ibai Salas, with Merino in close pursuit in third. Naturgas hold a slender advantage of Seguros in the team rankings, so they'll look to take that classification outright as well. Orbea rider Noel Martín snatched a brilliant win for the team in Oñate last year, and DS Arberas will send a strong 11-man squad to the event in the hope of a repeat. Lining up for both events will be Pello Bilbao, Igor Merino, Unai Martínez, Efrén Carazo, Carlos Barbero, Jon Larrinaga, Rory Martínez, Álex Bilbao, Mikel Martioda, Alberto Guinea and Fernando Grijalba.
Igor Antón is a popular man in the Basque Country, obviously, but even more so in his home-town of Galdakao. A placard reading "Aupa Igor" can be seen hanging on the Galdakao town hall, and a larger celebration, or tribute, call it what you like, is being planned for the nearest future. Speaking on the matter, a pumped Igor said: "I hope I'll be in a good enough condition to be able to enjoy the day with my family and friends".
Impressive 21-year-old Mikel Landa has as anticipated been chosen to represent Spain at the upcoming World Championships in Melbourne. The youngster has enjoyed a breakout campaign with Orbea, recently confirming his burgeoning talent by taking fifth overall at l'Avenir. Fellow Orbea rider Jon Izagirre missed out on selection, as Jesús Herrada, Higinio Fernández and Juan José Lobato took the last three places. No doubt a strong quartet, but I must say I'm at a loss to figure out why José Luis de Santos has almost exclusively opted for climbers. The Worlds are not held in Colombia, it's in Melbourne. Flat Melbourne. Herrada, Landa and Fernández are all excellent prospects, but they all excell when the road tilts upwards. Lobato is more of an all-rounder, so he should thrive. But I suspect de Santos might be left to rue the omission of strong rouleur Izagirre and David De la Cruz of Caja Rural to name two riders more adept to the flat and rolling roads of Geelong.
Samu Sánchez has as expected been selected to represent Spain in the World Championship road race. He'll be the protected rider along with triple-winner Freire, while Haimar Zubeldia has been called up for the first time since Zolder 2002. Haimar has come back surprisingly strong after his pre-Tour crash, starring in Sán Sebastián, Québec and Montréal. None of them will ride the time trial though, as LL Sánchez apparently had yet another change of heart after intitially opting against it.
After Luis León Sánchez decided against riding the World Championship ITT, team Spain coach José Luis de Santos has turned to Samuel Sánchez. Samu has not yet decided on whether to go for it or not, but he's de Santos' preferred option.
Naturgas Energía DS Aritz Arberas was elated with his team's overall win in the Torneo Sub23 team rankings. The red team cemented their place on the top of the pile in the final race in that particular competition on Sunday after holding the lead for a substantial part of the season. Arberas, who was actually a rider on the team two years back, was overjoyed, saying: "It's an enormous reward. Team-work is one of the fundamental values in this team, so it is a recognition of our work." As you'll know by now, Pello Bilbao took out the individual rankings in the same race series, so Arberas and his crew can no doubt look back on a solid season.
The Euskaltel riders at the Vuelta have written an open letter to the press. Earlier today it was published on the team's official website. I've translated it for you. To the best of my ability, though, mind you, so it's not perfect. But here we go:
It's been a hard weekend, a very hard one. The stages have started out really fast, a furious pace have been set all day, and on Sunday even the weather was adverse, with rain, wind and low temperatures. The stage-finishes have also been very hard. But for Euskaltel-Euskadi the difficulties have been of another form. Psychological, mental. Our companions' wounds, our friends' wounds, still make us bleed.
When you realise all your sacrifice, your work, your suffering as a team, a great team like ours, the team of Igor and Egoi, was all for nothing due to bad luck, it feels like it's all over. And at this moment in time our partners, our fans, the lovers of the sport, enter. These loyal followers who animated us, raised our spirits and made us hold our heads high. They've supported us more than ever. They shared our grief and pain, but they showed their support. Just like the team's sponsors who visited us in person. Their messages of support have made us feel even prouder to don this jersey.
To the sponsors who've supported us and to our fans who have pushed us on, this is a brief statement of our appreciation and gratefulness, from all of us in this unique project - the orange family. To all of you who, together, have made our suffering manageable and a little less painful.
Igor and Egoi are no longer here, but they will return with the same illusion and desire to be just as strong as they've been. And the ones still here will recover. We will go to Madrid with other objectives, other challenges and other illusions. But thanks to our sponsors, partners and fans. We will fight with all we've got and stay motivated to finish this Vuelta with our heads held high - just like you thought us and just what our companions deserve.
Igor Antón simply refuses to get down-beat about crashing out of the Vuelta while in the leader's jersey, and has already set himself goals for next season. He's likely to go back to the Vuelta next year, with the intention of winning, but intriguingly he's also aiming for the Giro. "Next year I want to do the Giro", he told Bilbao newspaper El Correo the day after successfully having surgery on his broken elbow. I've always thought of the Giro as the ideal Grand Tour for Antón, what with it's numerous high mountain stages and few time trial kilometres. Peaking for the Giro in May and the Vuelta in September - which is exactly what Nibali is doing now - sounds both doable and realistic. Both races traditionally suit him. As for his injury, the fractured bone in his elbow is likely to be healed in two or three weeks time, so it shouldn't really hamper next season at all. He's already stated that he's aiming to return to training before the season draws to a close.
Numerous riders, journalists and fans have got in contact with Antón over the weekend to wish him well in his recovery. As an Athletic Bilbao fanatic, Igor was in seventh heaven when Bilbao left-back Koikili and a few other players visitid him and handed over a signed shirt early on Sunday.
Samu showed he's bang on form for the upcoming World Championships by taking a splendid sixth place on the GP Montréal's demanding parcours today. The Olympic champ crossed the line nine seconds adrift of mercurial climber Gesink, while Haimar Zubeldia also made a strong case for himself being included in the Spain team by taking fourth. Gorka Izagirre gave colour to the race and protagonism to the team by being a member of the day's main break. Naturally they were reeled back in, but it was still a good day out for the impressive youngster. Castroviejo put on a decent performance through placing 40th at 2:02, while Rubén Pérez was just another 41 seconds back in 42nd. The quintet of Aramendía, Azanza, Minguez, A Pérez and Izagirre all abandoned underway.
The Tour de l'Avenir came to a close today with a 13,5km ITT from Guillestre to Risoul, and Mikel Landa finished the race in a fine 5th place - a resulting boding well for his coming years in the Euskaltel jersey. He finished a solid 13th overall - proving he's more than just a pure climber - while Jon Izagirre also showed strength and skill against the clock to grab 21st place. Landa was eventually 3:17 behind overall winner Quintana Rojas, who utterly dominated the latter stages of the race and was good value for his win, while Izagirre ended up 34th on GC. I reckon they both have done more than enough by now to warrant a place in Spain's Worlds team. The team is likely to be unveiled in the nearest future, so stay tuned.
According to VeloNews, Beñat Intxausti has decided to call it quits in the Vuelta and has dropped out of the race. Whether he dropped out underway or just didn't take to the start was not specified, and doesn't really matter, but it was not a surprising call by Beñat. He's struggled immensely since day one and has looked out of sorts and a shadow of his former self. His performances have been a massive let-down for the team and himself, and he probably couldn't find the motivation to keep on going now that there's no longer a captain or race-leader to serve. I assume this is the end of his season, and thus his last outing for the team. Not the way he would have wanted to say goodbye.
As you'll know by now, Igor Antón has sadly crashed out of the Vuelta. The overall leader allegedly touched wheels with team-mate Egoi Martínez a kilometre or so away from the start of the last climb, in the process causing a massive pile-up and taking with him a whole host of riders. Igor looked terrible and has later been diagnosed with a broken elbow. Egoi purportedly suffered a broken collarbone. The duo were taken to the Cruces hospital in Bilbao by team heads Madariaga and Galdeano straight away, with Purito Rodríguez going on to take stage honours while Nibali donned the red jersey left vacant by Igor's abandonment. Obviously a massive blow for Igor, the team and us fans alike. Life's a bitch, huh? I can't believe this has happened again - anyone remembering a similar incident two years back going down the Cordal? I'm lost for words really. Amazingly, the team posted a message on their website from Igor himself shortly after being taken away from the race, a message in which Igor puts on an admirably brave face. Rather than whining and complaining and feeling sorry for himself, to his great credit he preferred to remain philosophical about the whole thing, saying: "I'll take with me the fact that I've enjoyed 14 happy days and lived the dream. I've won two beautiful stages, I've been the leader for a few days, and I'v showed that I can aspire to win a Grand Tour once. I'll come back with the intention to win this race. I'm staying serene. When things were great, I stayed calm and with my feet firmly placed on the ground. Now that the situation has taken an unexpected turn, I'll stay true to that philosophy. I've experienced a few let-downs in my life and I know how to handle them. I want to send a message of spirit to my team-mates. They're doing a great Vuelta and I hope they'll continue that way. The only thing I know is that I'll be stronger in 2011."
Jon Izagirre and Mikel Landa both did well to come in with the main peloton on today's hard fifth stage of the Tour de l'Avenir. Precocious sprinter, climber, rouleur, pretty much everything really, John Degenkolb bested the two Orbea riders' compatriot Herrada in a two-up sprint, while former under-23 TT champ Oliveira and Ben King and Jan Tratnik all rolled in just a single second back. A 35-man group finished at 39 seconds, a group Landa and Izagirre were a part of. Landa is now ninth overall going into the last couple of stages, 1:19 back on Yannick Eijssen.
Orbea have announced the signing of 21-year-old Aritz Bagües. The Gipuzkoa native will leave the highly-successful Bidelan-Kirolgi outfit to give it a shot with Orbea as of next season. The strong climber has put on a number of strong performances this year, not least when placing second to a certain Pello Bilbao in the San Isidro Sari Nagusia one-day race back in May. He's reportedly been studying technical engineering up until this year, but will now hope to make it as a professional cyclist with Euskaltel eventually.
Basque sub23 road race champ Pello Bilbao grabbed his umpteenth top 10 placing this year in yesterday's Andra Mari Sari Nagusia one-day race in Urduliz. More importantly though, he's still in charge of the Torneo Sub23 rankings with only one appointment left on the calendar; a race in Bermeo on Sunday. A large group came to the finish line together to sprint it out for the win. Jon Pardo of the all-conquering Seguros Bilbao outift bested Enrique Sanz of Lizarte and Jesús Herrero of Camargo right on the line. Pello wasn't far behind in sixth place, strengthening his grip on the big prize.
Igor's win was sublime, full stop. But so too was Mikel Nieve's ride. The super domestique once again battled it out with the best in the business on the slopes to Andorra's ski station to grab a notable 15th place at 53 seconds, coming in ahead of GT veterans LL Sánchez, Karpets and former leader Rodríguez, meaning the featherweight climber is now 18th overall. Amets Txurruka was also up there for a long time and hung on to grab 28th at just over two minutes. JJ Oroz was 43rd at 3:35, Martínez 53rd at 4:56, Verdugo 68th at 7:53, while Koldo, Urtasun and Intxausti once again rolled in with the gruppetto at 19:14. Igor is again the leader of the points rankings, while he's now also heading up the combi classification. Euskaltel remain third in the team rankings. Speaking after the stage, the affable maillot rojo had this to say: "It's great coming out of this stage win the win, the overall lead and the bonus seconds. I won't lie anymore: I'll fight for the overall win in this race. I'm not afraid of anyone, just a bad day. But it won't be a big deal if I don't win in Madrid. I'm already happy with how I've been doing. Today wasn't my best day though. I felt better at Valdepeñas de Jaén and at Xorret del Catí, but I measured my efforts and it worked out well eventually. The team is ready to defend the jersey".
