Izagirre 9th in Inca

Gorka Izagirre, fresh off a strong Tour Down Under, was once again mixing it up with the big boys in today's Trofeo Inca, the third leg of the Mallorca Challenge. A trio consisting of Hermans, Durán and Tondo escaped on the descent off of the 1. category Puig Major and made it all the way to the line. A select group of approximately 30 riders crossed the line 45 seconds down, among them the aforementioned Izagirre in ninth, Peio Bilbao of Orbea in a highly impressive 12th, equally impressive Victor Cabedo and Ricardo Garcia of the same team in 14th and 15th respectively, Velasco in 19th, Landa in 24th and Castroviejo in 28th. In other words: the young guns really showed their worth out there today. Minguez, R Pérez and J Izagirre ended up 5:47 adrift, Bizkarra of Orbea 8:33, Txurruka 14:26, Bagües and Sáez, who spent another day off the front in the break of the day, 15:58, and Sesma ended up 20:07 in arrears. Orbea's Etxebarria and Euskaltel's Urtasun finished outside the time-limit, while Orbea companions Martín and Zabalo stepped off underway.