Tirreno stage 2 and Paris-Nice stage 5 results

Euskaltel came through a mass pile-up inside the last two kilometres of today's first stage proper of the Tirreno-Adriatico unscathed, with Rubén Pérez also securing the team a top finish with 10th in the sprint. Pérez thus grabbed his best placing of the young season. Everyone else on the team finished inside the peloton on a rather calm 230km day from San Vincenzo to Indicatore.

In Paris-Nice, the team is still searching for a result to 'save' their first European WorldTour event of 2012. Antón was never really in contention on today's fifth stage to Mende and finished 53 seconds down in 25th place, while Astarloza is still struggling after his crash earlier in the week. The Pasajes native came in 5:10 down in a lowly 81st. Sicard's form looks to be on the up though with a decent 53rd place, 2:06 in arrears. The Frenchman is the team's top rider on GC in 44th.

Stage results:

• (1, Lieuwe Westra, Vacansoleil)
• 25, Igor Antón, 0:53
• 53, Romain Sicard, 2:06
• 64, Gorka Izagirre, 2:52
• 81, Mikel Astarloza, 5:10
• 103, Pierre Cazaux, 7:40
• 115, Adrián Sáez, 16:59
• 121, Ricardo García, s.t.
• 153, Peio Bilbao, 20:17

Sicard is ranked fifth in the young riders competition - Gorka Izagirre is eigtht.