Briefs

• One-day French Cup-race Tour de Vendée is coming up this Sunday, and Euskaltel will for the third year running send a team. 2009-winner Koldo Fernández will be present, and so too will Landa, Cazaux, Aramendía, Azanza, Isasi, Oroz and Bilbao. Source: Cyclingstartlists.com
• Orbea were active throughout in this weekend's two-stage Tour de Gevaudan. García and Sáez both made their way into the race-deciding 25-man break early on in stage one, but couldn't keep it up and eventually ended up 11th and 30th respectively. Martín, Bizkarra and Bagües came home with a large group some 22 minutes adrift, while Extebarria ended up 35:47 in arrears. The stage went to Guillaume Levarlet. Day two ended with another Levarlet-triumph. Sáez, Martín and Bagües finished 18th, 22nd and 26th at 1:55, while García was 45th, Bizkarra 49th and Etxebarria 57th. On GC, Sáez finished 24th, García 26th, Martín 32nd, Bagües 35th, Bizkarra 46th and Etxebarria 59th. Despite not grabbing any notable results, DS Díaz was happy, telling fundacioneuskadi.com that "we were very close, but just missed out".
• Naturgas Energía ended their season with the three-day Vuelta a Cantabria yesterday. Grijalba's tenth on Saturday was the closest they came to taking what would have been a sensational win in light of the level of competition. Jon Larrinaga was awarded the 'most aggressive rider'-prize overall after being on the attack continuously, while Aitor González - on loan from Debabarrena - finished as top rider in 21st place on GC.