ENECO

The ENECO Tour started today, though without Iñigo for one reason or another. The team could have lined up 8 riders, but, and this says a lot of the race's importance to the team, chose to go with 7. Those seven were Aitor H, Andoni, Josu, Javier, Dioni, Gorka and Beñat. A few of them, or most of them to be honest, need to show what they've got at the race to be able to stay on with the team. Quite a few of these riders are in the danger zone of being axed, as the team will drastically reduce the number of riders going into the 2009 season. None of them did though, as Gorka, who's not in the danger zone, was the best of the guys in the prologue, ending up 38th, 17 seconds adrift. Javier placed 61st, at 20 seconds, Beñat was 71st, at 23, Josu 87th at 25, Aitor 97th at 29 seconds, Andoni 128th at 39, while Dioni came in dead last, a full 55 seconds back. Not a great start, but I wasn't really expecting it either. I do expect, though, to see some of them in the breaks the coming week. Especially guys like Dioni, Beñat, Andoni, Aitor H and Josu who, I fear, may be among the casualities come the end of the season. I know nothing about it though. For all I know they may all be assured a place on the team for next year. We'll soon find out...