Equipo Euskadi: Alentejo stage 1 & 2 round-up

The Fundación Euskadi's Continental team, Euskadi, have been hard at work in Portugal this week, taking part in the Volta ao Alentejo.

Despite their late entry into the race, Aritz Arberas' boys made their mark on the opening stage.

The first leg, taking the peloton 167 kilometres from Castelo de Vide to Marvão, saw Rádio Popular-Onda's Daniel Silva coming out tops, besting Karel Hnik of Etixx and Spaniard Eduard Prades of OMF-Quinta da Lixa. Carlos Barbero, pictured above, finished tenth in the bunch sprint, while Illart Zuazubiskar spent the majority of the day up ahead in the main break.

"We did well", DS Arberas said after the stage. "The most important thing was to avoid losing time, and we even finished third in the team rankings".

For full stage 1 results, click here.

Lose time they did on the second stage, though. Bontrager's Belgian Jasper Stuyven emerged victorious over the 172,1 clicks from Sousel to Portel, ousting American Chad Haga of Optum and Carlos Oyarzun of Dunas de Oro.

The speedy Unai Iparragirre was the team's top finisher on Friday, taking 16th in a big group coming in 1:15 down. In that group was also the aforementioned Barbero and Aritz Bagües, the former the team's top-placed rider on GC in 13th with three stages to go.

For full stage 2 results, click here.

The race concludes on Sunday.