Good performance on the Covadonga

Euskaltel enjoyed a good day on the Vuelta's first mountainous stage today. The stage, with the goal-line at the mythical Lagos de Covadonga, saw three Euskaltel riders in the break of the day, thanks to Dioni, Aitor and Alán, and a 17th, 18th and 26th place one the stage as well as in the overall rankings. Samu rode OK to claim 17th, 2:29 down on Efimkin, but only 1:23 down on the first group of favourites, so that's not too bad. After all he said he didn't expect to fight for the win today; he estimated a time loss of about a minute. Igor came in just besides Samu and looked strong riding in support of his captain. Dioni got a good 26th after being in the break, while the rest of the guys came in further back. Aitor was 68th, 9:16 down, Iñigo 78th at 9:23, Alán 105th at 17:45, while Haimar, Iñaki and Koldo all came in with the gruppetto 18:03 adrift. Great to see Haimar completing the stage, and as he said himself after the stage, he expects to get better and better over the coming days. Great riding and great spirit from Haimar. Haimar for president!