Izagirre and Astarloza head up charge for debut Limousin win

Euskaltel will be looking to capture their first ever stage win at the Tour du Limousin this week.

The French four-day event commences on Tuesday, and Euskaltel will send a relatively experienced eight-man squad consisting of Mikel Astarloza, Ricardo García, Peio Bilbao, Gorka Izagirre, Ricardo Mestre, Steffen Radochla, Adrián Sáez and André Schulze.

The race featured on Ion Izagirre's initial race calendar as well, but no reason has been given for his exclusion.

In his place, brother Gorka and the rest of the Carrots will aim to take the team's first win in the race. Euskaltel haven't been regular participants, and have only partaken on a few occasions in the past. One Euskaltel rider who has done the race quite a few times in his career is Jure Kocjan.

The Slovenian came sixth overall in 2011 and won a pair of stages last year, but the 28-year-old has only just returned to competition after a virus laid him low for several months and won't be present.

Photo: Iñaki Azanza