Samu not worried by 'lazy start'

Despite Euskaltel having failed to pick up a single win so far this season, team captain Samuel Sánchez is everything but worried. According to the Olympic champ, this is the way it's always been - and a win is just around the corner.

"The results will come. We normally bag out first victory at around this time. April is our month", he told BiciCiclismo.

"I'm feeling good, and we shouldn't let the fact that the results aren't going our way get to us. We've always been a bit 'lazy' like that. Maybe it's down to the climate; in the north we don't usually get the sun we get in the south or the east."

Sánchez will spearhead the team's charge in the upcoming Volta a Catalunya and at the País Vasco in early April. He's finished on the podium three times and taken five stages over the years, and sees no reason he won't be up there in this year's edition.

"In País Vasco it's always hard to perform as it's our home race. But if my form is at the level it's been the last years, I think I'll be up there challenging for the win. The two stages to finish at altitude, the stages to Arrate and to the Ibardin, will separate the riders in the race for the overall, and the tough time trial on the last stage will decide the race."

The race organizer's much-publicized economic travails threatened the staging of the race until Basque bank group Sabadell Guipuzcoano stepped in with the necessary cash. If they hadn't done so, it would have been a big loss according to the 34-year-old.

"It's a classic race with the best fans, so it would have been serious if it has disappeared off the calendar".

To get ready for the Vuelta al País Vasco, five of the team's riders will recon the last part of the decisive stage to the Ibardin tomorrow, www.fundacioneuskadi.com reports. Antón, Astarloza, Azanza, G Izagirre and Sicard will check out the last 70 kilometres, including the climbs of Aritxulegi, Agina and the Ibardin.