Nieve-crash hinders Euskaltel

Euskaltel's bad luck in team time trials this year continued as Mikel Nieve hit the deck on the Tour de France's fourth leg on Tuesday.

In the Giro d'Italia, a flat tyre inside the last click saw a potential top 10 result turn into 22nd by the finish line. The team wasn't on course for a top ten today, but they passed the intermediate check point in 16th when ill-fortune struck again:

Team captain Mikel Nieve took a tumble on a corner, and the team was forced to sit up and wait for him.

By the finish, the team had dropped to 21st, 1:23 in arrears.

Nieve escaped serious injury and will be fit to start on Wednesday, and team boss Igor González de Galdeano was unconcerned when speaking to the team's website post-race.

"It's a shame he crashed, but it's not a big worry", he stated. "The result doesn't reflect our performance today - 16th at the intermediate point is more accurate. We didn't come to the Tour to fight for the general classification, so the time lost doesn't really make a difference".

Results:

• (1, Orica-GreenEdge, 25:56)
• 21, Euskaltel, 1:23

Photo: BCPT