Tour conclusion
The Tour de France came to an end yesterday in Paris. There were as expected no major changes to the GC, so Samu finished fourth overall. Very bitter result, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Alán was active on the finishing circuits on the Champs-Elysées and made it into the main break, but as usual it came down to a sprint finish. Rubén did okay to grab 15th while the rest of the guys came came in furhter back but still on the same time as the winner. That leaves us with Samu in fourth, as mentioned, Gorka Verdugo in 36th, Egoi in 40th, Iván in 62nd, Rubén in 95th, Iñaki in 115th and Alán in 129th place. Euskaltel took eighth in the team rankings, which isn't bad considering they lost Amets and JJ pretty early on. Good overall team performance I reckon, but once again we're left with nothing to show for it in terms of wins. Samu is not trying to hide his disappointment, saying he'd rather finish 20th than 4th. I guess that sums it up.
3 comments:
I agree with you Magnus, we got some decent overall finishes but no stage wins unfortunately. My main concern is that most of the guys on the team were "non-contenders", i.e. they didn't even try to create anything on the stages. Ruben (and Samu of course) was the only one who at least gave it a try on a few occasions while the others remained completely anonymous. Hopefully the team roster will be more balanced next year and with a more focused approach to things. Give the young climbers a chance, bring Igor Anton, and tell them to attack when ever they see a mountain. Euskaltel style!
I think there was no action by the others due to everyone was riding for a high overall placing by Samu.
If the team and Samu had gone from the beginning only for stage wins, there would have been been the possibility (there were enough down hill finishes). But on the other hand fighting for the podium was also nice.
They did one major mistakes in my eyes, and that was not chase down the breakaway on the stage to Bagnères-de-Luchon. That was the golden opportunity to take a stage, it had S.Sanchez written all over it. I was disappointed that they wouldn't even try, as we all know, you've got to be able to take some risks in order to win...
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