Vuelta al País Vasco-team revealed

If Biciciclismo are to be believed, which they normally are, Euskaltel will field the following eight riders in Zumarraga in seven days: Samuel Sánchez, Iñaki Isasi, Egoi Martínez, Juan José Oroz, Pablo Urtasun, Iván Velasco, Gorka Verdugo and Amets Txurruka. Jonathan Castroviejo and Gorka Izagirre are down as reserves. Apparently Galdeano will only decide 100% on it later this week, but http://www.biciciclismo.com/ seem pretty convinced this is the team. Castroviejo fell ill during the opening stage of the Crit. International two days ago, something which explains his DNF, but he's still an option if someone else gets injured or anything. Sicard loses out, the website claims, as his crash in Catalunya left him with several stitches, a swollen eye and a blow to his coccyx. Add in tendinitis at Paris-Nice and a general lack of form and it's a no-brainer really. The team will have Sicard undergo some x-rays to make sure his coccyx is fine, and he'll likely be toeing the line in Estella on Saturday at the GP Indurain.

Talking País Vasco, Samu spoke to Alain Laiseka of DEIA after returning home from Corsica yesterday. Talking about his failure to stay with the best up L'Ospedale on Saturday, the man himself was adamant nothing was wrong. "There's no alarm", he stressed. "I ended up paying for my efforts on a very hard stage. I was disappointed, but it was only a blip, a moment of weakness. I would worry if it had happended at the foot of the climb. Then something would be wrong, I wouldn't have been okay. That wasn't the case. I was fine and suddenly I was not. It happens. I'm feeling good. I've done the work I had to do. I've trained well. I don't care about the results right now. We have to stay calm. Being nervous is no use in a race like País Vasco".