Samuel third in Criterium

Just like Isasi, Samuel isn't ready with his season yet. Samuel became third in a criterium in Madrid from the ACP (association of profesional cyclists). It was a race where they had to sprint for points, but Contador was the fastest at the end. Sastre and Samuel battled it out for the second place, but the winner of last year couldn't get before Sastre.

Isasi 7th in cyclocross race

Last sunday Iñaki Isasi rode the cyclocross race in Pobes. He rode a good race and became seventh, Unai Yus won the race. I didn't know that Iñaki would ride cyclocross races but it's great because it's a good way to keep up your condition. I also hope that he will get selected or invited for a race in Belgium because that would give me a good reason to go and see a cyclocross once here :P

Haimar Zubeldia in 2007

I'm gonna start my review on 2007 with my favourite rider of all, Haimar Zubeldia. In my opinion he had a very good year, of course with the highlight in the Tour de France. He didn't ride that much races but he was consistent the whole year. He started a bit slow in the smaller spanish races like Almeria (56) , Castilla y Leon (57) and a 16th place in Marcia. Then he started his training for the Tour with good results in Llodio (8), Paredes (8) and a good Dauphine with a sixth place on the Mont Ventoux. Next up was the Tour de France, where Haimar showed himself once again one of the best stage riders in the world. He was able to follow in the mountains and made time good in an attack with Vinokourov. He ended fifth. Then he rode the Clasica san Sebastian (23) and finished his year in the Vuelta where he worked his ass off for Samuel Sanchez but sadly his own classement was ruined due to a fall.

Results 2007

Almeria : 56

Marcia : 15/17/32/79 => 16

Castilla y Leon : 56/48/30/93/59 => 57

Indurain : 50

Romandia : 52/48/52/31/24/59 => 24

Paredes : 33/18/8/6 => 8

Llodio : 8

Dauphiné Liberé : 40/54/28/33/6/38/27/23 => 19

Tour de France : 96/75/73/68/106/31/81/26/11/54/34/60/32/15/3/6/32/22/20/40 => 5

Clasica San Sebastian : 23

Vuelta : 67/56/187/130/61/102/172/53/70/54/85/98/50/9/26/62/48/36/60/31/59 => 44

For next year I want him to win an official race again and maybe a spot higher in the Tour, but I would be very happy with another fifth one :D

Back from Paris

I'm back from the trip to Paris and it was great ! My goal was to find a shop where they sell Euskaltel shirts but I didn't find one, so I bought the official Tour 2007 book, with lots of pictures from Euskaltel. I bought L'équipe every day but I didn't know that there would be the presentation of the Tour 2008 in Paris that moment, otherwise I would go to there ! But i'm ready again to let you know everything from Euskaltel :D

I'm going to Paris

I'm going to Paris with school for four days so I won't be able to update my blog untill sunday. I'm really excited because I finally will get to see the Champs-Elysées, the mythical place where the riders who finish the tour, use their final forces. If you want to keep up to date about Euskaltel, go to http://ibanmayoblog.blogspot.com

Escalada a Montjuïc : Moreno wins, Samu 2nd

Euskaltel hasn't been able to continue its winning streak in the Escalada a Montjuïc. In the first part, a 24km road race, Daniel Moreno crossed the finish together with Carlos Sastre and Samuel Sanchez. Igor Anton came in 5 seconds after those three. In the crono Moreno was able to keep the lead and won two seconds before Samuel Sanchez.

Final General Classification
1 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Relax - Gam 1.01.22
2 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0.02
3 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC 0.12
4 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0.35

Montjuic road race - 24.4 km
1 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Relax - Gam 45.30 (32.18 km/h)
2 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC
3 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
4 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi +0.05

Montjuic hill climb - 10 km
1 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Relax - Gam 15.52.72 (37.82 km/h)
2 Samuel Sánchez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0.01.51
3 Oscar Sevilla Ribera (Spa) Relax - Gam 0.10.65
4 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC 0.12.07
5 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0.30.11

ProTour Ranks : Euskaltel 11th

Euskaltel became 11th in the protour rankings this year and with the 17th place of 2006, this is a really good result. You can really see that Euskaltel works as a team now and for the futur this will only continue, I think. Euskaltel also leaves some strong teams behind like T-mobile, Gerolsteiner and Milram.

1. CSC 392

2. Liquigas 354

3.Caisse d'Epargne 337

11. Euskaltel 227

In the individual ranks Samuel Sanchez became ninth. Not the same result as last years second place but without the Zurich race, it's still a good performance.

1. Cadel Evans 247

2. Davide Rebellin 197

3. Alberto Contador 191

...

9. Samuel Sanchez 159

40. Mikel Astarloza 56

44. Haimar Zubeldia 53

48. Igor Anton 45

113. Iñigo Landaluze 10

147. Koldo Fernandez 7

We will see what the ProTour will bring next year.

Lombardia : Cunego wins, Samuel Third

It was the same story for Samuel Sanchez like in the World Championships. He was in a small group behind the leaders but instead of working together they looked at eachother. Here Ricco and Cunego rode in front with 8 seconds advantage and at 1km they start looking at eachother. Everybody thought that this was their end but no... What did the group with Samu, Rebellin and Evans do ? Stop :X Cunego sprints for the victory and wins his second title before Ricco, Samuel takes the sprint for the third place.

Not only Samuel was good today. We also got to see a very strong Alan Perez in the early escape but when Tosatto made the pace, no one could follow. Igor Anton was very strong too, he lead the group with all the favourites and looked very impressive.

Results
1 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Fondital 5.52.48 (41.16 km/h)
2 Riccardo Riccò (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir ST
3 Samuel Sánchez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi +0.10
...
12. Igor Anton +0.19
38. Alan Perez +5.17
47. Dionisio Galparsoro +8.20
92. Juan Jose Oroz +12.37
96. Iñaki Isasi +12.37

Lombardia line-up *finally*

According to cyclignews.com this will be the eight riders from Euskaltel who will ride Lombardia this saturday : Samuel Sanchez, Igor Anton, Dionisio Galparsoro, Iñaki Isasi, Aitor Hernandez, Alan Perez, Juan Jose Oroz and Unai Uribarri.

With Samuel and Igor Euskaltel will have two potential winners and Samuel will try to repeat or even do better than last year with his second place after World Champion Betinni.

Anton & Samu present in Montjuic

Just like the last years, Euskaltel will have good chances for the victory in the Escalada a Montjuic. Samuel Sanchez, the winner of 2004 and 2005, and Igor Anton, the winner of 2006, will represent Euskaltel. It's a three part race with a 24km road race, a 10km time trial and a downhill race. Really a race for Samuel in good shape ! It will be held next sunday, the day after Lombardia and of course I will try to post the results ASAP.

Paris Tour : Petacchi wins, Euskaltel nowhere

It seems like Euskaltel is still in the hype of the Vuelta because as far as I know, they didn't do much in Paris-Tours. The best one was Iñaki Isasi with a 29th place, which is not good at all. The best riders from Euskaltel at the moment, Samuel and Koldo didn't even finish. I can understand this from Samuel because he has still Lombardia next week but Koldo should have sprinted for the last time this season. *I just read on the Euskaltel site that Koldo fell and left the race because of this.*

In the race there was an early escape with David Boucher, Manuel Quinziato and a young promissing Belgian Serge Pauwels. Quinziato escaped from the group but at 8 km from the finish his story was over. Another Belgian, Gilbert, tried to escape together with Kroon and Pozzato, but with the sprint teams behind them it was an useless effort. So it became a sprint and Petacchi showed himself once again the best sprinter before Chicchi and Freire.

Results
1. Alessandro Petacchi Milram 5:32:37
2. Francesco Chicchi Liquigas ST
3. Oscar Freire Rabobank ST
...
29. Iñaki Isasi ST
39. Alan Perez ST
41. Igor Anton ST
97. Juan Jose Oroz +0:48

Ruben till 2010, Amets till 2008

Today we finally got some good news. Ruben Perez will stay with Euskaltel untill 2010. He has signed his contract today because he did really great in the Tour this year and will be very important for Euskaltel in the next tours imo. (The picture is me with Ruben Perez btw)

Amets Txurruka didn't want to sign a new contract, he wants to wait untill his contract till 2008 ends and then he will see. I can understand him because he's really good and might get some interesting offers but please stay with Euskaltel, Amets !!

Nothing for Joseba, Mayoz,Aranaga, Uribarri and Iriondo ??

We still don't have any news about what Joseba Zubeldia, Iban Mayoz, Andoni Aranaga, Unai Uribarri and Iban Iriondo will do next year and actually it scares me a bit. i'm realistic, I don't see them in a protour team next year but I'm sure they will do good in a pro continental team. Sadly enough they haven't shown much last year and I really would hate it if they should retire because of this !

So a call to all the continental and pro continental bosses : HIRE THEM !! THEY ARE WORTH IT !!

Paris-Tours : Line-up

We finally got the line-up for Paris-Tours today from the Paris-Tours site but I don't know if it's the right one yet.

Unai Uribarri, Samuel Sanchez, Igor Anton, Koldo Fernandez, Iñaki Isasi, Alan Perez, Juan Jose Oroz, Dionisio Galparsoro and Aitor Hernandez as a back-up.

This is a great team imo. I don't think Samu will try to win because he's going to wait for Lombardio but if Koldo is in good shape he will definitely have a chance.

Haimar in Flemish Magazine

Every week Jan Mulder (an old soccer coach) writes a column for a flemish magazine called Humo and some time ago the title was HAIMAR. The article lays on my desk for quite a while but I never had the time to post about it.

In the article Jan Mulder says how he discoverd the name Haimar Zubeldia. It was when Haimar fell in the Vuelta in one of the early stages "I didn't know who Zubeldia was, but hearing the shock in the voice of Karl Vannieuwkerke (my favorite cycling commentator) I knew he was someone important". "I thought Zubeldia was an anonymus, but I got that wrong, Zubeldia is bigger than the Rio Ebro, he's a half god." And he finishes his column with the words : "Since that day I can't miss the vuelta anymore. Seeing Haimar at the start is the irresistable law of attraction".

You can't believe how happy I was with this article. Here in Belgium it looks like they ignore Euskaltel. They never say something about them and when Samu won three stages in the vuelta they never posted a pic of him :S

Joseba and Lander for charity

In these non-cycling times I wanted to let you know that I'm still here. There is not much to tell since the line-up for Paris-Tours isn't out yet but I found something that has a bit to do with Euskaltel.

Yesterday Joseba Zubeldia and Lander Aperribay were present at an introduction about an initiative from the AGAEB ( Asociacion Guipuzcoano de Afectados de Espina Bifida). They rent bicycles for people with a mental handicap so

Team 2008 completed : Josu Agirre new

We finally know who will ride for our favourite team next year. There is also one new rider announced Josu Agirre but more information about him and the team when I'm a little bit less busy

Siguen (23):
Albizuri, Beñat
Antón, Igor
Aperribay, Lander
Astarloza, Mikel
Azanza, Jorge
Bru, Jon
Fernández de Larrea, Koldo
Galdos, Aitor
Galparsoro, Dioni
Hernández, Aitor
Irizar, Markel
Isasi, Iñaki
Lafuente, Andoni
Landaluze, Iñigo
Luengo, Antton
Oroz, Juan José
Pérez, Alan
Pérez, Rubén
Sánchez, Samuel
Txurruka, Amets
Velasco, Iván
Verdugo, Gorka
Zubeldia, Haimar

Altas (3)
Agirre, Josu
Aramendia, Fco. Javier
Martinez, Egoi