Madariaga pleased with Tour performance

Miguel Madariaga, head chief of the Fundacion Euskadi Ciclista, was suprisingly up-beat about the team's recent showing in France. He spoke at length to DEIA yesterday, saying: "It's a pain that we didn't succeed in winning a stage, but there's no way we can complain about it. The ruling's a good one, I can't see how it can't be. Every Tour is different from the last one, but we've reached the level we hoped we would. We've come 2nd on the two most important stages in the mountains, and Samu has ended up 7th overall. Perhaps some doesn't value Samu's performance, but if you look at the final GC, and the riders he's in front of, it's obvious that his overall placing is important for him as well as the team. And, I guess most people don't know this, but it's also the first time all 9 riders on the team have reached the finish-line. I'm personally proud of that. I'm also proud of our 4th place in the team rankings in the hardest race on earth. If you look at what team's are behind us in the standings, it's impressive. Of course we've reflected on the fact that we didn't win a stage, but we're only one out of 12(!) teams who haven't won one. If we look at those teams' potential, both economically and from a sporting perspective, and we compare it to our philosophy, I can't see how I can complain. I'm actually proud, really proud, of what we've done in this race. Of course it was extremely annoying when Egoi went so close, but we've analyzed the whole thing so that it won't happen again. But sometimes riders commit errors. They're only human beings after all. We told him as the stage progressed that it'd be wise to save something for later, and we also warned him of Gerrans, who's a good rider. We trusted each other. It's clear that the Australian told Egoi that he felt bad and that he wouldn't contest the sprint for the win, but you can't believe in those thing nowadays. Egoi was simply too honest."