Monday, June 20, 2011

Tour squad revealed

Euskaltel have revealed the names of the nine riders that will make up the team at the Tour de France. Joining Samu, Txurruka, Verdugo, Martínez and R Pérez (who were all certain of a spot a long time ago) will be Iván Velasco, A Pérez, Pablo Urtasun and Gorka Izagirre. The latter two will make their Tour bow this year. Glad to see Gorka given the chance; he'll be one to look out for make no mistake. Urtasun also adds a lot to the team and is worthy of his place, while it was almost a given that solid climber Velasco and all-rounder A Pérez were going to get selected. All in all a decent, well-rounded team. Samu will have plenty of support in the mountains in the shape of Verdugo, Martínez, Velasco and Txurruka, while Izagirre, Urtasun and A and R Pérez are all good bets for stage glory. Leave your thoughts on the team in the 'Comments' section.

7 comments:

arnout said...

I don't understand why Alan Perez gets a place year after year. He usually drops out prematurely and adds nothing another riders doesn't add (and they do add more than that).

For the rest, decent squad. Let's hope they don't have to defend Samu's jersey ;)

azanca02 said...

Squad looks good...well I hope they look better than they did in the Dauphine. Amets seems to be coming to form and Samu always know how to time condition just right.

Magnus said...

Actually, Arnout, Alan Pérez will be making his Tour debut, so maybe you're mixing him up with someone else?

Vegard said...

Alan Perez rode the tour both last year and in 2009. Two years ago he didn't make it to Paris, but last year he ended up as number 129 in the GC.

I'm quite of a fan of Alan. He seems to be doing what he should every year, and from what I've seen he is good at bringing his captains in good positions in the peloton. A steady allrounder that you can rely on.

Nick said...

Thrilled to see Izagirre the older in the squad! Not only will be a valuable teammate in the mountains, he should serve some good use in the TTT, which for some reason everyone thinks Euskaltel will epically fail in.

Magnus said...

You're absolutely right Vegard, maybe I'm mixing him up with someone else?;) I read several places he was due to make his Tour debut, but obviously you're right. Quite the fan of him myself; he looked really good in Suisse!

Kristof said...

Nice team, allthough I hoped for Castro in the team. Can it be the flirting with Movistar is upsetting the team or should the kneeproblems be the reason? I'm a very very big fan of the team but I think they do not give enough chance to the youngsters. Alan Perez could be a decent helper, but there obviously are young riders with more talent. The same for Urtasun, If they wanted to select a sprinter I think Koldo Fernandez was a better idea.

 

web site counter
ISP Internet Providers