Sunday, September 14, 2008

Euskaltel recuperate

Euskaltel put in a surprisingly good performance in today's Vuelta stage. The 14th stage was another one for the climbers and, given that the team were without the services of leading climber Igor, I'm impressed with their showing and attitude. Iñigo got into the break of the day, Iván impressed greatly by attacking the leading riders on the very last climb, Egoi held onto his 8th place overall and Alán ended up 14th. Good shit. Halfway up the last climb, with many tough mountains behind them, Euskaltel had three riders in the leading bunch. Alán took the responsibility of looking after Egoi, and they came in together at 1:40, in 14th and 15th place respectively. Iván, though he must have been exhausted by his heroics earlier on on the climb, came in 17th, just 1:52 off the pace. This was enough to give the team 3rd place on the day. That's quite impressive I'd say. There's one mountain-stage to go, and that one's on the menu for tomorrow. Keep up the good work.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

According to SportWereld, Samu has now more or less officially gone to Cervélo on a 2-year deal :(

I really hoped until the last. It's like the Olympics are hitting back on Euskaltel. If he had just been number 4, how would the situation be today? Well, that doesn't matter. All is just shit right now. Mikel, Igor and Koldo really need to raise their level a lot if Euskaltel wants to be as competive as the last two years.

I'm hoping for a Imtxausti-signing, in a few years time he'll be one of the worlds leading climbers. All he needs is some peace and a little more motivation. When he wants to, he can go with the best as in Klasika Primavera. When he's not quite up to it, he withdraws.

Anonymous said...

It'll be made official after the Vuelta :/

Anonymous said...

Hm it's just... I don't understand... Samu said in his press conference that he will take a decision after the World championships... I don't know if we can trust those sources like Sport Wereld...

Magnus said...

I wouldn't trust Sport Wereld, my I feel Samu's departure is imminent. Though, he's on a contract 'till 2010, so Euskaltel should get some money for him to use on signing other riders. I'd love to see Intxausti team up, but I don't think that will happen. He'll likely prefer a better and more well-organized team.

 

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