Merino shines in Euskadi champs

Igor Merino was as expected among the strongest in this weekend's Euskadi championships, bagging a silver in both the time trial and in the road race. The powerful allrounder finished runner-up to a certain Omar Fraile, the all-counquering Seguros Bilbao rider who'll team up with Orbea next year and Euskaltel in 2013. González and Chetout placed ninth and tenth respectively. Of note was former Orbea rider Mikel Ilundain's second place in the elite ITT.

In yesterday's road race Merino just lost out on the top gong, finishing fifth and more importantly 21 seconds down on number four and first sub-23 rider Ibai Salas. The Naturgas prodigy thus ended up with two silvers. Not bad in two races! Ocampos showed his form is coming along nicely by grabbing 12th on the line and fifth in the under-23 rankings, while González was sixth. Former Euskaltel stalward Aitor Hernández finished a distant 30th, while Fraile was 19th.