As many of you will have heard through invitations to the relevant teams we at Euskaltel – Euskadi have decide to start hosting a small series of races solely for riders from the greater Basque region, composed of Euskadi, Navarre and (part of) Aquitaine. We have decided to invite riders from the entire Aquitaine though as French Basque is not recognized as an independent region thus not appearing in the UCI-files.
The first race will be held shortly after the continental championships on the route of Clásica San Sebastián and in future editions we will be revisiting the routes of other races in the region.
At this moment we have agreements with the organizers of GP Miguel Indurain, Klasika Primavera, Prueba Villafranca-Ordiziako Klasika and Circuito de Getxo.
We are also in talks with the Vuelta al PaÃs Vasco-organizers in order to possibly borrow a stage or two from them in the future.
If anyone feels we have missed something in terms of routes feel free to say so.
Teams with riders from more than one of the regions have been allowed to split their team into smaller regional teams, but only Euskaltel have decided to use that opportunity.
At this point the following riders have agreed to start the race:
The following have received an invitation, but have not responded yet:
Spoiler
Name
Team
Region
Born
Avg
B.Kadri
AG2R La Mondiale
Aquitaine
03-09-1986
70
D.López
Sky Procycling
Pays_Vasco
13-05-1981
73
X.Zandio
Sky Procycling
Navarra
17-03-1977
72
Of course any new Basque riders that might appear will automatically be invited as well.
Occasionally throughout the season we might supplement with races in other kind of terrains that the riders have to be able to handle in modern cycling such as a small cobbled race or a completely flat race.
Ranking points will be given as shown below. Races outside the Basque Country will give half the points.
Spoiler
Place
Points
1
30
2
25
3
20
4
19
5
17
6
15
7
14
8
13
9
12
10
11
11
10
12
9
13
8
14
7
15
6
16
5
17
4
18
3
19
2
20
1
The first race will only be open to local riders, but in later editions we might issue special invitations to teams not represented, who have made a good show in one (or more) of the Basque races.
We might also open permanently for riders with special connection to the Basque country, but they would have to make a good case for themselves and they will not be allowed to enter if their team are already fielding 8 riders or more.
Riders feeling eligible are allowed to nominate themselves by contacting the Euskaltel - Euskadi management.
With all races in part 1 of the season done with this seems to be a good moment to have a closer look at the highlights and the numbers.
Tarik Chaoufi had the honour of being the rider with most days on the bike in part one with 31 race days. That is more than half of the total days the team raced. he was in several breakaways during that time, but failed to score a single points for the rankings. Still a good effort as a valued team member.
The only three riders actualy winning something takes places 2-4 in the rankings both in total points and efficiency.
As for the calendar things look a bit different than expected.
Even though the four most points-giving races all had mountains in them it is worth noticing that Clasica AlmerÃa and Kuune-Bruxelles-Kuurne are on a shared 3rd place calculating the amount of points/day. A flat classic and a cobbled race actually being valuable for Euskaltel is certainly untraditional, but also the kind of thing we need to survive on the World Tour.
You can always check the first page of the HQ to see how we are doing in terms of scoring points, but here are the rankings as we have calculated them at this time to sum up the first part of the season.
Also a quick announcement about the Basque race series:
Basque riders have always been known and loved for their attacking spirit so after each race we will name the most aggressive rider, who will also be given 5 pts for the rankings.
The award will go to a rider, who helps create the race by attacking and/or fighting to keep an advatage even when the chances seem smaller than impossible.
This will be known as the Sagastin award after the rider, who got this team it's first win through a persistant breakaway in Vuelta al PaÃs Vasco 1994.
Also we would like to remind everyone that even though Gorka Nieve will ride the first edition for NetApp - Endura it is possible for you to enter the race series by signing Gorka or any other Basque rider you might find.
I know you're busy with your side project (looking really good by the way - a shame I can't participate), but can you maybe tell me what my schedule will be for the next season part? Would like to discuss it soon.
Of course we can talk about your calendar!
We still have some pending wildcard applications though, which is why I haven't quite been able to give you a full schedule yet.
Looking at what you said in the start of the season and in the end of part 1 we have you set up for the following:
As absolute leader: Tour of Flanders Paris-Roubaix
Shared leadership with Lobato: Rund um Köln Tour de België
If we get all our wildcards accepted we will also send you as leader to 4 Jours de Dunkerque, if we are refused entry to Tour of Norway you will have to share leadership with JJ though.
Also if acceped we will send our strongest flat/sprint team to Scheldeprijs with you and JJ left to decide who has the best legs on the day.
But first is obviously the European championships, which should serve as good training for you and the Ardennes captains.
Ollfardh wrote:
Thank you, it looks very good! But do I have some racedays left for the eneco tour and the late season classics?
You do. I actually already have a provisional plan for the entire season to make sure I didn't miss out on anything.
I know it seems like many days, but I haven't signed you up for any GT and most of your races only last a day so it doesn't use a lot of race days.
In the provisional plan you have 21 race days in late season as well with Eneco counting for 7 of those days and various classics for the rest.
That last part is still subject to change depending on how everyone performs in the 2nd part of the season though.
With the break well underway we have now finalized the startlist for the first race in the series.
First a thanks to Rudy Verboven, who have convinced to of his old friends from his youth in Vlaanderen namely De Jongh and Van Hoecke of Topsport Vlaanderen to take the trip here. The two young Belgians will be extra eyes and ears for us on the road.
You probably all have a decent idea as to who are the big names, but this list will give you a good overview over who also has some decent support. You will also get an overview over how the domestiques have been assigned.
The helpers have generally been assigned in a way where the strongest riders have been assigned the strongest helpers and the helpers have been told to leave their fighting spirit at home unless told otherwise by their captains.
You can’t underestimate Movistar though as the Spanish team in Intxausti and Castroviejo has two very strong riders and two strong helpers on top of that. Inxausti have even been given the number 1 by the organizing committee.
Euskaltel – Navarre is another strong team with Nieve and de las Campos on the climbs and Urtasun able to put in a strong finish. It does seem like a team that could prove lacking a bit in the top on a finish like this.
Zubeldia, Gárate and Fernández are all strong riders, who doesn’t have much of a team to rely on. Gárate looked strong in the recently raced GP Miguel Indurain and Fernández will have very good chances in a sprint, but it is very questionable if he will be able to stay in the front group over the climbs.
The most noteworthy underdog has to be Txurruka, who should be the absolute captain of Caja Rural and with his attacking spirit could be very hard for the big favourites to control.
Besides that I’m sure that all the talent-teams and Gorka Nieve will be highly motivated to prove that they are worthy of a contract on a higher level.
Great to see Mikael given that bit extra support! Obviously it will be a battle between the big Basque teams for the win, however out wish is for an outsider to steal it away. If not Delage then perhaps Huget or Garcia.
Looking forward to the first edition in the series and have even managed to get a scout down to watch closely.
In general we don't expect too much from the continental championships and we expect even less from the ITT-editions.
And that is pretty much what we got...
In the Aufrazian version Tarik managed to finish faster than four other guys, which isn't all that bad and in the European race Ion only needed to ride 10 seconds faster to enter the top 20.
Good team mates could also be the keyword for our next challenge: Volta a Catalunya. We came with a strong team to support Sánchez in his hard goal of getting on the podium.
The team did brilliantly to make sure Samu didn’t have to do anything before the finale and he thanked for the effort with four stage top 10’s and an overall 3rd place to great joy for the sponsors and everyone else.
At the same time we had finally been given the go to start racing in Tour of Oman. Once again Ion proved to be awesome by finishing 3rd in the GC less than half a minute away from the overall win.
While on a high note we might as well give a thought to our days on the cobbles. E3 and Gent - Wevelgem. De Panne started on a high note with Verboven’s 4th place on the first stage, but that was all we got out of that race as well…
Luckily the disappointing Belgian campaign didn’t affect the team racing our first home-field race Gran Premio Miguel Indurain in Navarre. A couple of the cobbles-riders including Verboven was on the team in support of Igor Antón and boy did they do a good job! The team controlled all the attacks forcing the other favourites to waste a lot of energy to no good allowing Igor to take them in the end beating Valverde on the line for the win!
The month ended with the Continental ITT Championships where Tarik managed to be faster than four other riders and Ion got fairly close to a top 20. All in all a decent warm-up for the road races…
Riders not mentioned did not race this month. Full rankings can be found in post #2
Rider of the Month
With strong rides from both Igor, Ion and Samuel this month it was a hard choice. Ion was probably the most surprising and Igor winning on home soil was a great moment.
Never the less the award goes to Samuel Sánchez for achieving a hard goal and showing the world that we are still to be taken serious on WT-mountains.
Coming Up
Firstly we'll be racing the continental championships with all our best hilly riders present in Europe and Tarik Chaoufi a one-man army in the Aufrazian race. To be honest we don't have too big expectations but we will expect everyone to try their best!
Our man focus of the upcoming races though is our home tour Vuelta al PaÃs Vasco. As the most important race all season we will bring the strongest possible team with Sánchez, Antón, de las Campos, Ion Izagirre, Landa, Nieve, MartÃnez and Urtasun with a free role in the sprints.
A Glimpse of History
This time we’ll have a quick look at the most important race for our team: Vuelta Ciclista al PaÃs Vasco.
More important though is Mariano Cañardo Lacasta, who being born in Navarra was the first rider from Euskal Herria to get success in the race when he took stage 4 and along with it the GC in 1930.
Mariano Cañardo
In 1936 civil war broke out in Spain with the military coup resulting in the fascist regime of Franco. As a direct result our beloved race wasn’t raced again until 1969, where the renowned Jacques Anquetil won the GC in his last year as a pro with Basque rider Francisco Gabicagogeascoa Ibarra 2nd and another Basque, Domingo Perurena Telletxea, taking the final stage. It only took one further year to get the first Basque winner in Luis Pedro Santamarina Antonana.
Telletxea went on to several more wins. In fact he shares the record for most stage wins (11) with Sean Kelly. In contrast to the Irishman Domingo never managed to bag a GC win.
With that in mind we will jump to 1994 when AgustÃn Sagasti in our teams first year gave the team a win on stage 5 – the team’s first ever win! Sadly AgustÃn’s career was cut short by a nasty crash in 1995 and to make the story even worse he died only 39 years old in 2009.
AgustÃn Sagastin
From there on followed a series of year where Iñigo Cuesta’s GC win in 1998 was the closest thing we got to a win. He rode for ONCE at the time, but he did ride his first two years for Euskadi in spite of being born in Castilla y Leon.
In reality it took until 2001 for this team to get another win. Still not a true Basque though as Angel Castresana del Val also hailed from Castilla y Leon, but at least he didn’t change to ONCE until the year after his Basque stage win.
Things improved much in 2002 where we got to stage wins thanks to David Etxebarria and Aitor Osa Eizaguirre became the first Basque to win the GC 6 years after he had left his first team Euskadi. David finished on 2nd place in that instance – our best GC result so far!
Mayo’s win should also prove to be the end of the Basque rule over the race.
Samuel Sánchez
Not until Samuel Sánchez’ win on stage 6 in 2007 did our team reach the podium again. Fortunately that was an omen for better times as our former rider Basque-born David Herrero Llorente won a stage in 2008 and Sammy came back to take the points jersey in 2009 and a stage in both 2010 and 2011 before he finally brought the orange jersey back on the top step in 2012. And that very effectively with two stage wins and the points jersey along the way.
So these Continental championships.. Not sure what to make of them. I still had the good feeling I had in De Panne and Indurain, but sometimes it just doesn't work. I was feeling pretty good in the final laps, but it was a very nervous race and well, things can go wrong. It was in a descent, and it was going so fast I couldn't really tell who or what caused it, but suddenly Sagan and Vanmarcke made contact and went down, just in front of me. I couldn't avoid them anymore and went right over them.
It hurt. It still does. When I got up, the other two were still on the ground. But I felt continuing was pointless. My back felt broken and even the chasing groups were starting to pass us now. The first time I rode a championship in my carreer became the first abandon in my carreer. I heard Igor did ok, but no podium for us.
What worries me is my back is hurting with the big races coming up. I know there cna be no more excuses after my first season part, but I felt I was doing better, especialy the hills seem to go better now.
_Part3.jpg)
Paris-Roubaix
Rund um Köln
Tour de Luxembourg
Amstel Gold Race
Po-ding Kim
Tarik Chaoufi
Bradley Wiggins
