Open letter from Euskaltel

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.