Notes

• Several Euskaltel riders, spearheaded by Samuel Sánchez, will tomorrow get familiar with the route of this year's first stage of the Vuelta al País Vasco. The stage, which starts and finishes in Zumarraga, includes seven (!) categorized climbs, and having done a reconnaissance will no doubt come in handy when the racing gets underway.
• Some of you might have noticed that the Euskaltel riders were wearing black armbands in Milano-San Remo this past Saturday. Not for disaster-stricken Japan, though, but for the recently deceased Juan Carlos Urrutxurtu, one of the founders of la Fundación Euskadi back in the day.