Happy 2008 !!

It's now 40 minutes before the new year will start and I would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a very good year ! I hope you will all stay healthy, that you will have everything that you need AND of course that you will stay a fan of Euskaltel and keep on reading this blog :D For cycling I wish a year without a lot of doping crap and definitely not within Euskaltel ! For Euskaltel I hope that there will be a few youngstars that break through and that Haimar Zubeldia wins a good race once again.

Once again a HAPPY NEWYEAR

Your blogger Yort :D

Juan Jose Oroz in 2007

Juan Jose Oroz has only been with Euskaltel since 12 may, but still he did get the opportunity to ride some strong races like Tour de Suisse, Paris-Tours and Lombardia. Of course we couldn't expect good results right away, but in the Tour of Poland he got his first top 30 result in the fifth stage. There he also helped his team in the Team Time Trial to a great ninth place.

Catalunya : 22-101-110-84-96-127-46 => 78
Suisse : 74-163-96-115-88-51-86-101-78 => 90
Deutschland : 60-19-88-69-74-87-86-40-39 => 62
Vatenfall Cyclassics : 68
Poland : 9-54-96-61-28-31-34 => 32
Paris-Tours : 97
Lombardia : 92

Euskaltel in 2008 : No Giro ??

Miguel Madariaga announced in DEIA some new things about Euskaltel's season in 2008. The team won't ride the Tour of California, so this also means that they wont practise their time trial skills in San Diego. Another big thing is that they might won't ride the Giro. The last years they didn't do well there and if they can find a good alternative, Euskaltel won't feature in one of the three biggest tours in the world. Please ride the Giro Euskaltel :D

Javier Aramendia's plans for 2008

Young and promissing new rider Javier Aramendia has revealed a part of his plans for 2008. He will ride his first race for Euskaltel in Australia, the Tour Down Under. Then he will ride six smaller spanish races : Mallorca, Andalucia, Allmeria, Murcia, Castilly y Leon and Llodio. But the most important thing is that he will ride three northern races. Gent-Wevelgem, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flandres are on his schedule. This means I probably will meet him in Bruges (start of Tour of Flandres) and I'm already looking forward to it !

Iban Velasco in 2007

Iban Velasco's first year with Euskaltel has been a calm year, but he has shown what he is capable of. He came a bit slowly at pace. He definitely peaked for the Giro, his first big tour and you could see this in Trentino. There he achieved a 12th and 11th place in the first and third stage and a 21th place in the overall rank. In the Giro he got a 22th place in the third stage and a 23th place in the 19th stage. He finished his year in the Vuelta a Burgos where he fell in the second stage and had to give up. First they said there was nothing bad, but he didn't ride anymore that year, so probably there was something wrong.

Valenciana : 29-45-65-52-35 => 47
Paris-Nice : 158-156-139-78-118-147-X
Primavera : 68
Giro d'Oro : 44
Trentino : 12-24-11-22 => 21
Giro : 21-108-22-54-64-99-161-98-67-92-81-103-106-112-98-118-77-57-23-124-94 => 76
Suisse : 148-74-72-69-29-44-103-92-116 => 84
Burgos : 57-X

Iñaki Isasi in 2007

It was a short but powerful year for Iñaki Isasi. Everything was set on the Tour so he didn't compete in a lot of races. In Almeria he became 21th but in the Tour de France he disappointed a little bit. He was never able to ride a sprint as he did a couple of years ago but still he reached a 20th, 17th and two 14th places. After that he had to ride Burgos where he got a good 13th spot in the first stage. Euskaltel also select him for the Vuelta, where he worked hard for Koldo Fernandez in the sprints, resulting in only one top 20 spot (19th place in first stage). He ended his season in Lombardia with a 96th place.

Almeria : 21
Rioja : 38-40-67 => 54
Asturias : 42-34-65-78-X
Tour de France : 165-45-67-35-20-99-17-98-143-73-91-14-75-85-89-69-51-82-92-14 => 90
Burgos : 13-67-21-45-27 => 58
Vuelta : 19-107-65-137-17-48-148-49-88-74-25-22-61-95-136-69-30-93-40-66-117 => 74
Paris-Tours : 29
Lombardia : 96

Goodbye Flores and Artetxe

Iker Flores and Mikel Artetxe, two ex-Euskaltel riders, will not ride in 2008. They both decided to quit after their team Fuerteventura-cantarias stopped. Iker Flores rode for Euskaltel between 1999 & 2006 and won the Tour de l'Avenir, a very important race for younger riders. Mikel Artexte was with Euskaltel from 1995 till 2005 and won 5 races. Of course we will miss them but I wish them all the best with their next life.

Iban Mayoz in 2007

Iban Mayoz probably didn't live up to the standards of the team, but I don't think you can call his season bad. His first good result of the year was in the Criterium International where he got the 11th spot in the first stage. Then he rode a 23th spot in the third stage of the Euskal Bizikleta and two 20th spots in the Tour of Suisse. He also rode a good after-season. He became 17th in Ordizia, 26th in Getxo and finished his season with a 32th place in Plouay. But these results weren't enough for Euskaltel so Iban got fired. Luckily he found a new team, Karpin-Galica, where he can proove himself once again.

Trofeo Millor : 181
Trofeo Soller : 83
Tirreno-adriatico : 157-157-121-78-106-63-89 => 104
Milan-Sanremo : 116
Criterium International : 11-86-48 => 72
Asturias : 121-82-118-83-X
Paredes : 44-31-109-92 => 97
Llodio : 60
Euskal Bizikleta : 70-57-23-27 => 37
Suisse : 116-20-104-83-65-113-50-20-48=> 59
Ordizia : 17
Getxo : 26
Eneco : 55-69-54-132-96-111-56-73 => 59
Plouay : 32

Ruben Perez in 2007

Ruben Perez had probably his best year so far, and it was a great one. He immediately started good with a 14th and 8th spot in the Vuelta a Valenciana and a 9th place in the second stage in Alcobendas. He got the opportunity to ride the Tour so he prepared himself in the Dauphiné, where he got a 17th (2nd stage), 12th (3rd stage) and an 11th place (6th stage). Then he rode his first Tour de France where he did an extremely good shop in the attacks and a 12th place in the 5th stage and a 16th in the last one. He also finished every stage within the top 100, resulting in a very good 50th place in the general rank. His last good result was in the 7th stage of the eneco tour where he finished 21th. I met him three times this year, one time in the Tour and two times in the Eneco Tour, and he came across as a nice and modest man.

Valenciana : 14-35-8-54-26 => 48
Paris-Nice : 59-22-31-29-62-135-117-71 => 73
Indurain : 41
Basque Country : 132-67-122-67-34-53 => 45
Alcobendas : 20-9-26 => 19
Dauphine Libere : 110-17-12-71-96-11-59-112 => 74
Tour de France : 55-23-68-69-12-34-21-86-80-55-90-36-50-53-40-44-43-23-83-16 => 50
Sebastian : 107
Vatenfall Cyclassics : 29
Eneco Tour : 79-25-109-47-68-26-21-40 => 31

Alan Perez in 2007

Alan's first full year with Euskaltel started a bit slow. His only good results came from Paris-Nice where he finished 19th in the second and 12th in the fourth stage. Then he showed himself once again in the Deutschland Tour, not only with his 19th place in the second stage, but also with his great grinta and attacking work. Euskaltel gave him the chance to ride the vuelta and he took this great opportunity with both hands. He got an 18th, 14th, 22th, 24th, 25th and 15th place in the big round. He finished his good season in Lombardia where he got a 38th place.

Trofeo Mallorca : 37
Trofeo Millor : 114
Trofeo Pollenca : 129
Trofeo Soller : 124
Trofeo Calvia : 152
Paris-Nice : 72-19-124-12-130-62-123-81 => 71
Castilla y Leon : 104-37-119-108 X
Flandres : 102
Ghant-Wevelgem : 62
Team Time Trial : 21
Getxo : 53
Deutschland : 39-19-83-119-146-53-22-66-25 => 106
Vatenfall Cyclassics : 76
Vuelta : 18-14-67-105-177-22-174-67-151-44-95-25-46-52-139-32-15-105-41-29-24 => 94
Paris-Tours : 39
Lombardia : 38

Line-up Tour Down Under

The new season is getting closer and closer, but it's still 31 days. Despite this we already got the line-up for the Tour Down-Under, the first (protour) race of the season. Mikel Astarloza, former winner in 2003, will lead the team and Javier Aramendia will make his first performance for Euskaltel. The other riders are Jon Bru, Aitor Galdos, Andoni Lafuente, Amets Txurruka and Ivan Velasco. A good and strong team that can get results in different kind of stages.

Back with news

I finished my exams today so from now on I will be able to post the daily news about our favourite team again. Three important messages have reached me in the past days.

The most important one was about Samuel and it was even in the Belgian newspapers. If he didn't get the money he would get with other teams; Sanchez would leave Euskaltel. He set an ultimatum for the team, the 10th of January. I think that Euskaltel is going to give him the money because they still need him, as there are still not enough guys who win races.

The seconds news item was that Iban Mayoz got a contract with Karpin Galicia, the team that showed itself in the Vuelta. This will be a good oportunity for Iban to prove himself once again.

The last message and maybe a bit funny one is that Igor Astarloa asked Madariaga if he could get a spot in the team. Madariaga told him that he was too old and didn't fit in the team. In my opinion this is a good decision because he didn't show anything last year.

Examination Period

It's that time of the year again, the first examination period. This means that I won't be able to post news on here for two weeks, but I will try to post if something important has happened. You will see me back wednesday the 19th.

Aitor Galdos in 2007

His opinion : He said he had a bad year. He didn't reach the goals he was aiming for and he didn't respond to the teams faith in him. But next year will be much better, I know I can win races because I solved some problems I've struggles with last year.

Review : Aitor has been consistent throughout the whole year, with a bunch of top 10 and top 20 spots. He started the year good with a 10th and 5th spot in Santarem, a 5th place in the second stage in Castilla Y Leon and then he became 15th in the Klasika Primavera. He got the opportunity to ride the Tour of Romandia, resulting in an 8th place in the third stage, and the Tour de Suisse, but he had to give up after the first stage. He didn't ride a big tour so he rode the smaller races in the summer. He rode the Tour of Germany with an 8th place in the first stage and a 10th place in the sixth stage. He rode a good Vatenfall Cyclassics (17), and went on to the eneco tour where he became 12th in the fifth stage. He finished his season in Poland with a ninth place in the fourth stage.

My opinion : I think Aitor can be very happy with his season. He had some great results and I know for sure if he will be able to improve his placing skills a bit, that his capable of some great wins.

Almeria : 58
Santarem : 87-10-119-5 => 69
Castilla Y Leon : 99-5-92-118-95 => 97
GP Indurain : 52
Primavera : 15
Amstel Gold Race : 62
Romandia : 163-161-8-148-X
Catalunya : 22-34-14-173-178-123-167 => 164
Suisse : 151 -X
Circuito Getxo : 92
Germany : 8-19-165-120-168-10-21-159-20 => 144
Vatenfall Cyclassics : 17
Eneco Tour : 113-92-33-150-12-24-123-126 => 101
Poland : 9-29-75-9-109-138-X

Unai Etxebarria in 2007 : Farewell

It was Unai's 12th year with Euskaltel and this would become his last one. But he definitely wanted to show what he was still capable of. In his third race of the season, the Trofeo Calvia, he showed this by winning the race. He went on to the Tirreno Adriatico with a 19th place in stage 2 and the Vuelta a Andalucia where he got a 11th place in the first stage and a 28th spot in the general rank. In the Klasika Primavera he finished 25th, but in Benelux classics he couldn't get a good spot. He finished 22th in the first stage of the Vuelta a Catalunya and his last good result of the season was in the prologue of the Eneco Tour, with a 35th place. He ended his season in Plouay with a 121th place and this was also his last official race. FAREWELL UNAI, WE WILL MISS YOU. I met him twice this year in the Eneco Tour and he was a really friendly man, always ready to sign or smile for a picture.

Trofeo Mallorca : 60
Trofeo Pollenca : 67
Trofeo Calvia : 1
Andalucia : 11-28-42-31-36 => 28
Tirreno-Adriatico : 28-19-61-79-85-112-44 => 80
Basque Country : 135-157-128-113-63-91 => 79
Klasika Primavera : 25
Amstel Gold Race : 82
Liege-Bastogne-Liege : 89
Catalunya : 22-80-127-155-104-161-68 => 139
GP Llodio : 45
Euskal Bizikleta : 83-75-55-42 => 46
Circuito de Getxo : 95
Eneco Tour : 35-108-147-146-71-61-61-49 => 80
GP Plouay : 121

Amets Txurruka in 2007

For Amets Txurruka it has been one fantastic year. It was the first year with Euskaltel for him and although he didn't ride that much, he showed himself as a really talented and promising rider. His first great results were in the Vuelta a Rioja where he became sixth in the general rank and 8th in the second stage. I discovered him for the first time in his next race, the Tour of Romandia. There he showed his fighting skills to the world and even the belgian commentators were impressed. He finished 29th in the general rank there. He continued his good results in Catalunya (22th in first stage) and Llodio (17th) until he had some problems in the Euskal Bizikleta. But he managed to get ready in time for his first big performance, the Tour de France. And it became a great succes for him. In the 12th stage, he escaped and only one km before the finish he got caught again. This lead to the red back number the next day and after some other attacks the overall most combative price in the Tour de France. He also wore the White Jersey for the best youngster, because Contador and Soler already wore another jersey. He ended the Tour on a great 23th place and showed himself to the world as a great rider. He ended his season in Burgos where he ended 20th in the general rank. WHAT A SEASON !!!

Santarem : 90-113-93-87 => 82

Castilla y Leon : 103-49-107-58-34 => 56

Rioja : 28-8-11 => 6

Romandia : 140-32-49-30-23-69 => 29

Catalunya : 22-109-58-51-37-128-58 => 42

Llodio : 17

Euskal Bizikleta : 56 - X

Tour de France : 147-144-105-99-87-128-58-30-85-125-129-83-19-42-35-41-71-46-112

Burgos : 46-19-38-53-38 => 20