Poor, poor Landaluze...

Iñigo Landaluze once again went agonisingly close to a first ever Tour stage-win today. After making the break together with Rubén Pérez, along with 13 others, Iñigo ended up a brilliant, though nonetheless disappointing for him, second behind the amazing Gerdemann. Iñigo came in alone 40 seconds back, and automatically occupies the same place on GC.

It was a great day out for Euskaltel today. As mentioned, Rubén and Iñigo finally made the break after numerous attempts, together with big-name riders like Savoldelli, Martínez, Gerdemann and Flecha just to mention a few. The break was allowed a certain amount of freedom, and held a healthy 4:30 lead when going into the mighty Col de Colombière. The break will have to thank Rubén in particular for this big time gap, as Rubén drove the break relentlessly for his leader of the day, Iñigo. The break went, as predicted, to pieces straight away on the climb, with Gerdemann, Fofonov, De La Fuente, Gutierrez and Landaluze clearly the strongest. Gerdemann and Fofonov eventually created a big gap over the three others, with Iñigo leading the way for most of the time. After a couple of km, Fofonov couldn`t keep the pace as Gerdemann accelerated and went for broke some 6 km from the top. Iñigo further upped the pace as he saw the danger, and in the process of doing so, got rid of his fellow two Spaniards. Iñigo was for a long time about half a minute down on Gerdemann, but when he reached the summit, he was now only 17 seconds down. This made for an exciting finish, but Iñigo couldn`t catch him, and rolled in disappointed 40 seconds back. Though, congratz Iñigo once again on a fabulous effort. It was brilliant.

In the main leading group, which consisted roughly of about 30 riders, nothing happened. All the big favourites, with Mikel, Haimar and Iban among them, played the waiting-game. This led to a 35-man strong group arriving at the finish line together, 3:38 down. As a result of the strong riding by all Euskaltel riders, they finished second on the team rankings today, leapfrogging 8 teams to now occupy the same position overall. And just for the record, Haimar looked awesome up the climb, so be prepared for some strong riding from him the next days. Stage results:

• 2nd, Iñigo Landaluze, 0:40
• 21st, Mikel Astarloza, 3:38
• 26th, Haimar Zubeldia, 3:38
• 58th, Amets Txurruka, 7:04
• 70th, Igor Antón, 10:14
• 86th, Rubén Pérez, 13:07
• 98th, Iñaki Isasi, 18:42
• 99th, Gorka Verdugo, 18:42
• 100th, Jorge Azanza, 18:42