Euskaltel looking good ahead of final test

It was a complicated stage for Euskaltel today. The break of the day broke clear without any Euskaltel representative, and the team was thus forced to lead the chase back in the bunch. A four-man break got enough leeway early on, with Sandy Casar, Laurent Lefevre, Michael Boogerd and Axel Merckx making up the leading quartet. No one in the pack seemed interested at all in bringing the break back, and with Boogerd ranked 17th prior to the stage, Euskaltel had to assume responsability. The break had at one point more than 17 minutes, thus making Boogerd a threat to Mikel`s 10th place overall. So, with some 30 kilometres remaining, all 8 Euskaltel riders got the very front of the peloton, and started the chase. The gap quickly dropped, mainly thanks to the work of Jorge, Iñigo, Rubén and Iñaki. These four cut the break`s gap back to a non-threatening 10 minutes, meaning Mikel`s 10th place overall was secured ahead of tomorrow`s deciding ITT. The break, led home by French cycling`s hero-to-zero Sandy Casar. The pack came in split in two, with the first group, containing Haimar, Mikel, Amets, Gorka and Rubén, at 8:37. The second group containing the rest of the Euskaltel riders came in 9:24 down. That means that Haimar is 5th, Mikel 10th and Amets, amazingly, 23rd ahead of tomorrow`s race-deciding time trial. I have high hopes for all of them, especially for Mikel, who`s been showing great time trial form at the Tour so far. He might well be in the running for the stage-win tomorrow I reckon. Aupa!