Dauphiné and Euskal Bizikleta line-ups

Euskaltel will send strong squads to the two upcoming races; the Dauphiné Libéré and the Euskal Bizikleta.

The Euskal Bizikleta starts this Friday, and will this year contain no more than three stages. Igor, Amets, Koldo, Javier, Antton, Aitor Hernández, Andoni and Egoi will defend the team's colours on home soil. Igor will likely lead the push for overall honours. His ankle is finally healed, and, according to reports, he's in great shape. The rest of the guys will look to get into breaks, while Koldo will be the main man if one of the stages come down to a sprint. Looks like a solid team on paper. Amets is also rumoured to be in form, and he's got a love affair with the race, so watch out for the diminutive climber all three days.

The team's three captains for the Tour de France this summer will all feature in the traditional Tour dress-rehersal; the Dauphiné Libéré. Alongside Samu, Haimar and Mikel, will be Rubén, Alán, Beñat, Juanjo and Iñaki. Haimar will look to build on his strong Volta a Cataluña, while Mikel will try to get fit in time for the Tour after a mightly impressive first-half of the season. Samu hasn't been racing all that much this year, but he's always good, so no worries there. I predict the rest of the guys will do their utmost to assist an eventual overall push by one of them. Just like with the Bizikleta squad it looks awesome. Aupa!