Euskaltel anonymous in Almería

Euskaltel went missing in today's Clásica de Almería. The orange-clad riders never really animated the race in any way, despite Mikel Nieve trying (and failing) to get into the break of the day early on, and Rubén Pérez could only muster 13th in the sprint to conclude a sub-par performance. Alan Pérez, Antón, Nieve and Jon Izagirre all finished inside the main bunch, while Castroviejo, Minguez and Landa all abandoned.

It was a better performance from Orbea, though. Victor Cabedo once again spent the day out front, this time with Ventoso and Hoogerland, and showed his pedigree for picking the right time to attack. He also tried to go it alone inside the last 10 clicks, so both thumbs up for him! Adrián Sáez sprinted to a good 15th, while team-mates Urain, Aberasturi, Bilbao, Garcia and Zabalo all rolled in with the peloton. Cabedo finished the day 54 seconds down, not that he would care given his day-long exploits, while Etxebarria ended up 1:18 back.