Naturgas shows fighting spirit at Essor opener

Naturgas continued where they left off last season by putting on an aggressive showing at their first race of the year, the Essor Basque.

The red and white team took part in the first two stages of the event over the weekend, and came away with their honour intact if not the results.

Last year's revelation, Imanol Estévez (pictured avobe), got his campaign off to a decent start by taking 12th in Saturday's Boucles de l'Essor, a race taken out by Frenchman Olivier Le Gac. The 20-year-old took sixth from a bunch sprint in a group coming in 1:12 down on the victorious Frenchman, in a peloton that also included recent crash-victim Karl Baudron.

Results (full results here):

• (1, Olivier Le Gac (Bic 2000), 2:42:50)
• 12, Imanol Estévez, 1:12
• 24, Víctor Etxeberria, s.t.
• 40, Karl Baudron, s.t.
• 43, Javier Martín, s.t.
• 71, Pablo Comins, s.t.
• 73, Álvaro Trueba, s.t.
• 99, Loïc Chetout, s.t.

Things didn't go quite as well on Sunday in the Circuit de l'Essor, with the team failing to put a rider in the break and Chetout's 45th being their best result. Speaking post-race, DS Ion Lazkano lamented missing out on the move of the day.

"We didn't have much luck on Sunday", he told the Euskadi foundation's website. "We didn't manage to infiltrate the break, so we've got work to do there".

The Basque Federation also fielded a bunch of riders at the event, but none of them were even close to mixing it up with eventual winner Samuel Plouhinec, the former professional taking his second consecutive win at the Circuit de l'Essor.

Results (full results here):

• (1, Samuel Plouhinec (Team Peltrax-CS Dammarie-lès-Lys), 2:46:22)
• 45, Loïc Chetout, 2:48
• 49, Mikel Hernández (Euskadi), s.t.
• 57, Víctor Exteberria, s.t.
• 71, Mickael Guichard (Euskadi), s.t.
• 78, Noel Gil, s.t.
• 81, Markel Antón (Euskadi), s.t.
• 85, Igor Merino (Euskadi), s.t.
• 90, Imanol Estévez, s.t.
• 96, Jon Ander Insausti (Euskadi), s.t.
• 104, Eder Sáez de Ocariz, s.t.

Photo: Deia