Sánchez content with season finale

Despite coming away empty handed from the Tour of Beijing as far as triumphs and UCI points are concerned, Euskaltel leader Samuel Sánchez deems himself satisfied with the last month of the season after an injury-truncated year. The 34-year-old bounced back from crashes and subsequent abandonments at the Tour de France and, later, the Tour du Poitou-Charentes to feature strongly at the Worlds road race, finish second in the Giro di Lombardia and now 12th in China.

"Finally the season has come to a close", he told Efe. "And i finish the season better than I had expected. When I crashed in France (at Poitou-Charentes), I looked bleakly at everything, but at least I managed to line up in the World Championships, I got second in Lombardia and I travelled to China. It's important to finish the season with a bib number on your back and not by watching the races on television."

Speaking of the Tour of Beijing, Samu said: "The team gave it a go on the most demanding days, either by getting into the breaks or attacking in the finale, like the day with the Great Wall, but we lack the win and the more advanced places on GC. We brought a team of climbers, and the time bonuses didn't favour us".

The 2008 Olympic champion came in for some criticism (from this website anyway) earlier this week for quotes attributed to him about the damning revelations put forward by the USADA on Lance Armstrong. While he stopped short of saying one single bad word about the former seven-time Tour champ then, he's keen to point out that cycling is doing its utmost to clean up its act.

"Today cycling is a sport with a lot of controls, we have an internet program, ADAMS, on localization", he told Eitb, according to BiciCiclismo. "Cycling is at the forefront of doping (presumably he here tried to say it's at the forefront in the FIGHT against doping) and we're an exemplary sport in this regard".