Friday, July 22, 2011

Tour stage 18 and 19 round-up

It's been a contrasting two days at the Tour for Euskaltel. Yesterday Samu's podium challenge faltered on the relentless gradients of the Galibier. Today he finished second on the mighty Alpe and with it grabbed the team's first ever jersey in the Tour; the polkadots. It's a landmark achievement for the team and the Fundación as a whole, and finally you sense that the 'Best climber's jersey' has actually been won by the best climber. Richly deserved, chapeau! Stay tuned later this evening for full results and reactions.

4 comments:

Stephen said...

I think I was sweating as much as Samu was today!

Great, great result. A stage and two 2nd place show that he clearly was the best climber this year.

Anonymous said...

Not very good character by rolland. Not helping Samu in riding to Contador and then attacking :(

Kristof said...

Great Tour Samu! Too bad that one bad moment on the Galibier where he loses five minutes, without that moment he still was in the running for winning the Tour! In all the other important stages he showed to be better then the Schlecks. He surely is the best rider Euskaltel ever had, hope he can ride another couple of Tour de Frances.

Stephen said...

Just watched the ITV4 highlights and one little moment stuck out for me, Gorka Izagirre pinching a couple of points off Andy Scleck on the Telegraph by half a wheel. In the end it wasn't crucial but it could have been, and for me it summed up the success of the tour for the team...Samu rightly gets the glory but there is some talent coming through behind him and they work for each other. It's been fantastic to watch and tomorrow morning I'll be out wearing my Orange jersey with an extra touch of pride.

 

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