Orbea Competition · Orbea's Orange Road to Paris - Euskatel Euskadi's 2004 Tour De France - Newsletter Number 2, 7th July 2004.

Tactics, the best, the worst and the plan.

Welcome to another Orbea Tour de France 2004 Newsletter. We had newsletter number 2 all prepared to send out to you on Tuesday when our team's greatest fear materialised - a crash. A few kilometres before the Stage Three's first cobblestone section Euskaltel-Euskadi's Iban Mayo fell. For the rest of the stage the Euskaltel-Euskadi team battle against all odds to get Iban back into contention. Although in the end both Euskaltel leaders, Mayo and Zubeldia, ended up losing nearly 4 minutes, the day's events were in many ways a real testament to Euskaltel-Euskadi's strength.

The Plan.

The plan for the Euskaltel-Euskadi team for this week's opening stages of the Tour de France was to keep the two leader's, Iban Mayo and Haimar Zubeldia out of harm's way. The first two road stages of the Tour had already been marked by a number of falls, but none of them up until that point had either involved a large number of riders nor had they involved the boys in orange. Avoiding the crashes was not just been a matter of luck. From the television shots of the peloton we we have seen how the approach of Euskaltel was markedly different to other years. This year they have ridden as a block and as a team in contention. They have always seemed to manage to situate themselves near the head of the peloton in order to avoid the complicated, nervous and dangerous first weeks falls. At times it had appeared that the whole of the team was more of less concentrated in one distinctive and bright orange mass, at other times the team seems to be divided into two groups of three of four riders each.

To explain this configuration team director Julian Gorsospe told us how he has arranged the eight riders into three blocks allowing Zubeldia and Mayo to have two bodyguards each whilst permitting two riders to act as floaters to be in the place where the team requires them at any given time. The "hang on through the first week" plan sees Iban Mayo always accompanied by Iker Camaño and Unai Etxaberria, whilst Haimar Zubeldia is always accompanied by Iker Flores and Egoi Martinez. David Etxaberria and Iñigo Landaluze are always at the disposal of which ever of the two leaders require them at any given time. They also have the role of filtering themselves into any escapes in order to lighten the load of the other riders and to look out for any stage victory chances that may arise.

Earlier in the week Euskaltel-Euskadi's Director Julian Gorospe explained how the groupings of the riders had not been made at random. The aim is to reinforce the confidence of each of the leaders by having around them riders with whom they are familiar and can rely upon. Mayo rode many years with Iker Camaño at Cafes Baque and he trains daily in Durango with his neighbour Unai Etxaberria. Haimar and Iker Flores get on very well and Gorospe has also said size comes into play. "Iker, Egoi and Haimar are the three tallest riders on the team." Not only do they provide appropriate shelter for each other "but if something goes wrong for Zuebldia and he urgently needs to change a bike he can do it easily with Egoi or Iker...although Mayo has an intermediate size bike, he can, if the case demands it, use the bike of Unai to get out of trouble."

Most of the time Gorospe plans to have the two groups centred upon Mayo and Zubeldia ride separately. It is not a fixed rule: "it doesn't have to be that way, for example when there is a strong wind it is better that we ride together. But they will ride separately if they stage is going nervously as it is normal at this point of the race. Why? Very simple. In the Tour nobody is safe from a fall. it is always better to ride in the front 40, with a view of the head of the peloton." Riding in two groups simply means that if one leader falls the risk of the other one falling at the same time is lessened. The best position of course is that close to one of the well protected big favourites. And this has been were we have seen Euskaltel-Euskadi in these early stages. Protecting their leader's close to the front of the peloton and not so very far from the Ullrichs or the Armstrongs of the world.

Stage Three and What's Next?

Stage Three

Up until the mid point of Stage Three the plan seemed to be working. Mayo was happy with his position having only lost 4 seconds to Ullrich in the Proplogue. And as the Tour headed towards the first cobblestone section the Euskaltel Euskadi team were well placed near the front of the peloton. They also seemed to be riding as one block just prior to the point of the crash about 6 kilometres before the start of the cobbles. It was here that the best laid plans of the orange gang were brought unstuck with both Mayo and Zubeldia crashing. Zubeldia recovered quickly and without any apparent injury. Mayo was tangled up with teammates Iker Flores and Egoi Martinez and was sporting a large swollen graze to his left hip. Having got a wheel from one of his mates it was a while before Mayo was underway and he had to chase solo for a time until his teammates had come back to find him. Zubeldia remained in the yellow jersey group throughout, where he waited for Iker Camaño, Unai Etxaberria, David Etxaberria and Iñigo Landaluze to shepherd Iban Mayo back across the widening gap.

Stage Three ended up being a team time trial one day early and in response to the events the orange train drove Mayo with grit and determination and without the slightest sign of panic across to the yellow jersey group. This was the first testament to the strength of Euskaltel-Euskadi on Stage Three. They were able to salvage Mayo fron a absolute disaster and get him back across a a gap of more than a minute to take command of the head of the yellow jersey group. Once in that group they then directed the chase across the second stretch of cobbles and the gap of two minutes or so to the Arsmtrong group. At any time they could have sat up and washed their hands of the task, claiming it was hopeless and better to save their energy for another day.

The second testament to the strength of the Euskaltel-Euskadi was the reaction their chase provoked at the head of the race. Stage Three was not a day for showing respect to the yellow jersey, Thor Hushvold, after he too was involved in a crash. Whilst Euskaltel-Euskadi chased down the Hushvold group the distance between that group and the front group seemed to be falling ever so slightly. But once Mayo and Euskaltel took charge of the chase, and raised the pace with the cooperation of some of the other teams, the USPS led front group increased its speed correspondingly. USPS, Telekom and Phonak all knew the danger posed by Euskaltel-Euskadi and they were going to do their utmost to keep the orange boys out of the game. The reaction by USPS and the other teams by going harder as the yellow jersey group started to close the chase seemed to overlook the ethics of the peloton for one simple hard reason - Esukaltel-Euskadi were in that group and this was the opportunity of the other contendors to eliminate a dangerous rival.

The wash up was a loss for Mayo and Zubeldia of nearly four minutes on the general classification. It obviously means that Euskaltel-Euskadi will need to rethink their objectives for this year's Tour. Today the team faces the team time trial, a discipline that they are often criticised for. But the facts of Euskaltel's team time trial performance tell a slightly different story to the popular myth surrounding it. Every year, without even training for the event Eusklatel have steadily improved: losing 4:45 in 2001, 4:22 in 2002 and 3:22 in 2003.

What's Next?

Two or three factors will influence the team in today's TTT. First coming into this year's Tour they have in fact for the first time prepared for the TTT. On the other hand, they have put in a big effort yesterday, much of the time in the form of a TTT, to try and get back to the front of the race. The third factor is what are the team's objectives now? If they have written off the hunt for the podium and intend to concentrate on making a spectacle in the mountains and picking up stage victories a strong TTT effort today may just be a waste of energy.

Regarding the team's overall objectives, it may be too soon to really tell. After the experiences of Stage Three Iban Mayo said "someone touched my handlebar and I became unbalanced... the only consolation is that I didn't break anything ...". Iban said that he was "feeling sorry for the team.. all year they have been preparing for the Tour and to lose it like this hurts a lot ... to recover this much lost time will be very complicated... it is better now to think about what other objectives have arisen beacuse of these events..."

Mayo explained that "we were going at 60 kph chasing and the gap never fell, I suppose that with our crash ahead all the big team's were pulling. That's the way the Tour is, it is very hard. I hope that nothing similar happens to them.... the best thing at the moment is to change our obejctives as the podium now is very difficult...in the tour nobody is forgiven .... It is clear that they wanted to eliminate a dangerous rival and they have done it. I only say that they know that this could happen to anyone: today it was us, but another day it could be them.." In conclusion Mayo simply said: "this has been one of the biggest blows of my career....".

Without getting our hopes too high and taking into consideration the strength and danger posed by Euskaltel on Stage Three the one consolation we can look forward to at the moment is that the loss of time for Mayo and Zubeldia will in fact relieve them of a great deal of pressure.

The pressure built up by the expectations of the cycling world, the weight of the expectations of their fans and the Basque people will now be to some degree lightened. The podium may now seem out of reach but things can change quickly in the Tour. The change in plans that Stage Three might bring about might see a more attacking Euskaltel-Euskadi as the race rolls south towards the Pryenenes and the encounter with the mountains and the orange tide of the their fans. How many mountains to come? How many orange attacks? The mountains can still come alive to the sound of the Orange and Orbea will be there to be a part of it.

Until next time,

From the Orbea Tour 2004 Team.

Photos: courtesy cyclingnews.com and Orbea.

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