Velasco 19th overall as Down Under ends

Euskaltel were not in the thick of the action as they were yesterday in today's last Tour Down Under stage. None of the riders attacked the group, and none of the riders managed to fight for the win. All of them, except for Aitor who came in four minutes down, came in with the pack though, so Euskaltel ended up with a really good 5th place in the teams classification. Iván ended up a good 19th overall, while Mikel and Jon were not far behind in 26th and 27th place. Amets ended up 44th overall, 1:39 in arrears. His attacks on the climb yesterday were great to watch, but made him lose a bit of time at the end of that stage, and thus not resulting in a higher overall placing. Further down we have Andoni in 85th place, 7:14 back, Javier in 114th, 16:35 down and Aitor finished third-to-last, placing 120th more than 20 minutes down on eventual winner Greipel. Overall I must say, even though the team never got close to a win except for Mikel's last-ditch attack yesterday, that I'm pleasantly surprised with the team's performance. A 5th place is, though not important, a good start for the team, and all 7 of them were on the attack once in a while, lighting up the race. Some of the riders still have some way to go before reaching top form, but I guess that's not really unusual considering we're still in January. Bravo!