Euskaltel's calendar revised

Fundacion Euskadi head Miguel Madariaga today told Basque newspaper DEIA that Euskaltel will not take part in the Tour of California in February as they had planned. As a consequence, Samu and Egoi will not get the possibility of honing their time trialling skills in the San Diego wind-tunnel. Why they chose not to do California I don't know, but I guess it's got something to do with logistics. The team's participation in the Giro d'Italia, the first of the three Grand Tours, was also cast into doubt. The team will preferably not take to the start in Palermo, but in case they can't find a better alternative, they'll do it. The team, which would be led by, mainly, Iñigo, Dioni and Koldo, have not performed well in Italy the last few years, but I still hope they'll do it. And with riders like the three aforementioned, you've always got a chance of success.