Heading into the unknown

Gorka Izagirre will be making his much-anticipated debut in the Tour de France in less than a week, and he freely admits that he has no idea what's awaiting him. "I don't know anything about the Tour", he confided to the Diario Vasco. "I don't know the Pyrenees nor the Alps. I went to the Tourmalet with my parents and their group of friends when I was a kid, but that's all I've seen and all I know. The team took it's time in selecting me for the race, so I haven't had the opportunity to check out any of the stages. It'll be like a little adventure for me to see how I'll do, but I know it'll be hard. Since my return to competition after a mid-season break I've been feeling good, and I'm really looking forward to get to know the race." Izagirre had an outstanding showing in key lead-up race Tour de Suisse, being arguably the team's strongest rider at the prestigious WorldTour event. But despite that he'll be devoted to helping Samu rather than go looking for personal glory. "De Galdeano wants me to go all out in the team time trial and assist Samu and make sure he encounters no problems in the opening ten days", he told the newspaper, a task he'll share with Pablo Urtasun before the team's climbers will make their presence felt in the latter ten days of the three-week race. "I've got no problem with that." Despite having done quite a heavy load of racing so far this year, though he doesn't keep track of the number of days peculiarly, he insists he's recovered from a "very hard" Tour de Suisse and is ready to go. All nine members of the team will today make their way to France with the start of the biggest race on earth just a few days away.