Samu 5th overall in Paris-Nice

After finishing twice already in this edition of the 'Race to the sun', Samu had earmarked the final stage into Nice as the perfect opportunity to finally grab that elusive win. With it's descent off the Col d'Eze preceding the finish, the stage was tailor-made for Samu to make good use of his unrivalled descending-skills and take what would have been Euskaltel's very first win of 2011. Try he did, but it wasn't to be.

Gorka Izagirre cleverly got into the break of the day along with a whole bunch of strong riders early on in the race. When the race for GC hot up behind the break on the ramps of the Col d'Eze, the wily Izagirre dropped off the pace and decided to wait for his captain, who moments earlier had attacked the group of the main favourites. Together, the duo set about reeling in the remnants of the break ahead of them. It proved to be effective, as the duo in orange quickly caught one rider after the other. Still some riders were ahead, though, so, once at the top, Samu set off alone down into Nice in pursuit of runaway leader Voeckler. Despite being as 'aero' as ever, there was no catching the French champion, and Samu eventually had to settle for fourth at 1:06. Izagirre wasn't far behind in seventh, just six seconds further back. Great ride by the youngster. Despite his failed attempt at catching Voeckler, Samu still distanced his GC rivals by 16 seconds. As a result of this, he finished Paris-Nice ranked fifth. So early in the season, fifth is golden, and Samu will no doubt be encouraged by his early-season form. Urtasun finished 25th on today's stage (at 4:54) to make sure Euskaltel got an okay position in the team rankings, while Verdugo finished at 5:12, Isasi at 9:32, Cazaux at 11:31 and Azanza at 13:10. This made for the following GC:

• 5th, Samuel Sánchez
• 24th, Gorka Verdugo
• 54th, Gorka Izagirre
• 59th, Iñaki Isasi
• 68th, Pablo Urtasun
• 82nd, Jorge Azanza
• 86th, Pierre Cazaux

Team-wise, Euskaltel finished up 11th.