Numbers

A look at the 2008 statistics shows Euskaltel grabbed 8 wins in total. Or 7, it depends on whether you count Samu's Olympic gold an Euskaltel or Spain win. Personally I look at it as a Spanish win first and foremost. Anyway, 8 wins is not really much. Samu took five of those in Spanish races, while Samu took the ITT in Asturias and Igor won the 2nd stage in the Tour de Suisse. It's not good, it really isn't. And of course the guys at the helm at the team know this. Euskaltel have in fact got quite a few good riders, so reaching double figures should be the target next year. The team got 13 second places this year with Koldo grabbing 4 of those. Though, if some of those 13, like Igor's double-miss in the Euskal Bizikleta, Markel's fantastic ride in the Paris-Nice prologue, Egoi's agonising loss in the Tour, Alán's 2nd in the Giro's stage 6 and, of course, the team's 2nd in the opening team time trial in the Vuelta, had been turned into wins, it would have made for much happier reading. Luck really wasn't on Euskaltel's side this year, but, then again, all those second places weren't down to luck. Most of all it was down to bad tactics and inexperience. The number of third places surprised me quite a bit. I thought we got at least 10 of those, but as it turns out we only got 5. Koldo got 2, one each in the Vuelta and the Giro, Aitor Galdos took one, Haimar grabbed 3rd overall in the Challenge Mallorca, and Igor placed 3rd overall in the Tour de Suisse. Though, we ended up with 11 fourth places. Koldo was once again dominant in this department, grabbing 6 of those. The award of most top 10 placings of course goes out to Koldo, who, including wins, ended up a staggering 24 times inside the top 10. Mikel, in what turned out to be an unlucky season for him, grabbed 2nd, placing 11 times among the ten first. If you're down for more number crunching, go to: http://fundacioneuskadi.com/pag/ca_equipo_noticias_detalle.asp?cod=0&cod2=11&ocultar=1&ocultarp=1&Id=1195&cboanyo=2008&cbomes=10