Wednesday round-up

• Koldo Fernández finally looks to be back to some kind of form after placing 11th in yesterday's stage 4 and 16th in today's stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse. The team set him up expertly, especially earlier today, but when it came to the final 500 metres he just didn't have it. I guess that happens. A few more races will do him the world of good and might provide him with that little bit of explosiveness he seems to be lacking these days. The sport directors in Switzerland will no doubt be pleased with the team's performance as a whole today though, as the took took centre stage from the off. Daniel Sesma got into the main break of the day and took maximum points on the first three categorized climbs. When he got reeled in, Azanza, Aramendía, Izagirre and Alan and Rubén Pérez in particular, took control of the pack and kept the pace high on the run-in. Alan Pérez even gave it a go himself with six clicks left but was reeled in a kilometre or so later. Izagirre showed his skills in hectic sprint finishes to bring Koldo into the perfect position inside the last 2 kms, but as mentioned above Koldo just couldn't pull it off. Izagirre is still 22nd on GC, whilst Castroviejo now props up the standings. Not sure what has caused his relatively weak performance, but I assume he's struggling with illness or something down that road.
• Naturgas rider Fernando Grijalba maintained his lead in the Sub23 standing in the Copa Ibérica through his 19th-place finish in yesterday's race in Villasana de Mena. Carlos Barbero ended up 28th.