Galdeano on Intxausti failure

Igor González de Galdeano has finally broken the silence on why Beñat Intxausti has not performed as one would expect so far in the Vuelta. Sort of anyway. Talking to Basque daily El Diario Vasco, the man in charge said: "It's been an unpleasant surprise. We needed him on the stage to Valdepeñas but he didn't manage to stay at the front. On that stage he could have been. We thought he'd be able to stay with the front-runners. His surroundings put a lot of responsibility on him, and now he's being criticized. He's a very young rider with a lot of cycling left in him. With his age we knew something like this could happen to him. He's not performing as we had hoped. Being 24 he's got his whole career in front of him, but it's necessary to take it easy. He's gotten a lot of flack and people are angry with him. Let's see if he recovers, 'cause we need him." So it looks to be a mental problem more than a physical one. My bet is he'll come good in the second week.