Thursday round-up

• Euskaltel got through the Dauphiné's fourth stage yesterday unnoticed and out of trouble. On the flat stage into Mâcon that Degenkolb won, all Euskaltel riders conserved their strength and rolled in with the pack. Not much more to say really.
• The team will take to the start in Switzerland for the Tour de Suisse tomorrow. The roster is made up of Fernández, Castroviejo, G Izagirre, Sesma, Aramendía, Azanza and R and A Pérez. Castroviejo will look to put his mark on the two time trials that bookend the tour, whilst Izagirre will hope to make an impression on GC. Look for Koldo to get back into the swing of things in the mass sprints.
• Jon Aberasturi placed third in what was a good opening stage of the Volta ao Alentejo for Orbea yesterday. The emerging fast-man was only bettered by Portuguese duo Lima and Sancho, while GC guy Ricardo García placed an impressive sixth. Urain struggled towards the end of the 169,9km stage into Campo Maior and ceded 38 seconds, while Andoni Blázquez struggled even more after spending the day out front and eventually lost 3:33.
• Naturgas have a busy weekend ahead of them. On Saturday they'll fight to keep hold of Igor Merino's second place overall in the Torneo Lehendakari series in Beasain - without the man himself on the team! As reported earlier this week, Merino will embark on the Baby Giro tomorrow, meaning it'll be left to the following 11 youngsters to defend the team's colours: Ardaiz, Ocampos, Chetout, Baudron, García, Legarra, Grijalba, Barbero, Carazo, González and Bilbao. Everyone but García, Legarra and Carazo will line up the next day for appointment number two in the Copa Ibérica series. Rory Martínez will join up though, so they'll still have strength in numbers to defend Grijalba's third place overall.