Tour and the Basques

Things are not too great for the Basque riders in the Tour de France.

Hopefully things will start to look better when EPO Boy finally retires and stops pissing all over the event.

There is a couple of articles that talk about the current situation in which the riders from Euskal Herria find themselves.

No too cheerful, but well, if you can not handle the truth.

The first one is called "Basque team is no match to Armstrong as Tour enters Pyrenees". The article paints a grimm picture of what the riders from Euskaltel Euskadi are facing during the present edition of the Tour:

The Tour de France heads into the Pyrenees tomorrow, where Basque pride may not be enough to carry the local cycling team past six-time winner Lance Armstrong.

The leading rider on the Euskaltel-Euskadi team, composed entirely of Basques and sponsored by regional telecommunications company Euskaltel SA, was 10 minutes behind Armstrong in 22nd place before today's stage from Miramas to Montpellier in southwestern France. The team's best bet before the race, fifth- favorite Iban Mayo, was almost 50 minutes off the pace.

The second one, which appeared today, called "Cycling-Basque fans have nothing to cheer about", contains some bullying from you know who:

Orange has become the official colour in the mountains of the Tour de France in recent years whether it be Dutch spectators sporting their national colours at l'Alpe d'Huez or Basque fans clad in the Euskaltel team jersey in the Pyrenees.

Describing the difference between the two mountain chains, Lance Armstrong said: "The crowds are different. In the Alps, I guess they're more German or Dutch.

"In the Pyrenees, they're Basque though I suspect we'll see fewer of them this year."

The six-times Tour champion was right.

The author is mistaken, taking into consideration the size of the Basque Country, having so many riders (Beloki, Zubeldia, Mayo, Gonzalez de Galdeano, Garate) being considered to win the Tour is more than enough reason to go out there and proudly fly those Ikurriñas.

And hey, we still have Miguel Indurain's achievements to brag about.

*You can read the two articles at Artxiboak, here and here.

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