Dioni close to win; Aitor 6th

Euskaltel put on a good show in today's penultimate stage of the Ruta del Sol. Dioni showed his form is good by infiltrating in the break of the day with four other riders. The break looked doomed as Caisse took controll in the pack, put incredibly the quintet almost pulled it off. They were reeled back in with only 1500 metres to go... Annoying, but still a great effort from Dioni and his compatriots Benítez, Mondelo, Dominguez and Rosendo. It came down to a sprint as predicted, and Aitor grabbed a good 6th spot there. He's constantly in there Aitor, mixing it with the best, but still seems to lack that little extra burst at the end to grab a win. He'll probably have another chance tomorrow though, as the last stage only offers two climbs, and that's two third category climbs. There were no changes overall, so Mikel is still 4th overall, 1:36 down. He's only 4 seconds down on number 3 Evans, but he'll have a hard job clawing those seconds back. Anyway, here's today's results:

• 6th, Aitor Galdos, 0:00
• 20, Mikel Astarloza, s.t.
• 32nd, Dioni Galparsoro, s.t.
• 34th, Igor Antón, s.t.
• 36th, Jorge Azanza, s.t.
• 46th, Jon Bru, 0:15
• 59th, Josu Agirre, 0:23