Rumour mill round-up: Nieve to Sky, Sánchez negotiating with Saxo

With the Alonso-Euskaltel deal falling through, every Euskaltel rider is suddenly back on the market.

That's except for Gorka Izagirre, of course, who's already signed with Movistar. According to various reports, his brother Ion is desperate to join up with him. Ion naturally has no shortage of offers, but it's believed he's more keen to stay in Spain than move abroad. The pressing question is if Movistar has a spot open for him. Only today, Eusebio Unzúe signed John Gadret. Expect a deal to be reached between the two parties rather quickly if a contract is indeed put on the table.

According to the 'twittersphere' and the usually reliable guys over at BiciCiclismo, Mikel Nieve is on the verge of joining Sky. Samuel Sánchez on his part is said to be negotiating with Riis and Contador at Saxo-Tinkoff, but the Euskaltel icon has naturally not commented on the rumours in person.

Speaking to BiciCiclismo on Friday, he even said that "it wouldn't be a big drama" if he was to retire come the end of the season.

Read that article here.

Juan José Lobato is allegedly close to inking a deal with Cofidis, while Igor Antón is said to be fighting with Jan Bakelants and Thomas de Gendt over the last spot available at Omega Pharma-QuickStep.

Ioannis Tamouridis, currently at the Worlds in Florence, claims he's received no offers whatsoever, but several Pro Continental teams are said to be keen to take on the Greek.

Photo: BCPT