2010's Euskaltel Euskadi

A bit of bad news via this article published at Daily Peloton, Mikel Astarloza is no longer with the Euskaltel Euskadi team. They couldn't keep him after someone in Madrid "cooked his positive". Anyway, the team has a new roster and with the addition of Romain Sicard and Beñat Intxausti seems like hopes are riding high, here you have it:

2010: The Year of Truth for Euskaltel-Euskadi

Christopher Fauske

The Orange squad retools and looks to reassure the major sponsors

Last time Basque regional telecoms company Euskaltel thought about pulling its sponsorship of the Basque-country cycling squad that bears its name, the regional government and at least one provincial one reminded the company about its obligations to Basque identity and aspirations.

One year later, the telecoms firm once again looked to the governments, this time for support not guidance, and the word to the foundation that runs the team was clear: one more problem with allegations of doping and the money, from the tax payers and from Euskaltel, is gone.

Sponsorship contracts have been rewritten to give the company and the governments an out in the event of any team riders repeating the positives of Iñigo Landaluze and Mikel Astarloza this past summer.

Landaluze admitted doping, stressed he did it without the knowledge of the team, and retired. Astarloza maintains his innocence, has promised to contest the findings, and, at least through the end of the European season, he had the public support of the team. Now, though, 2010 calls and Euskaltel-Euskadi has severed ties with Astarloza and has removed the image of him celebrating his 2009 stage 16 Tour de France win from its web site banner.

In his place is the team’s first UCI rainbow jersey holder, the U23 road champion and new signing, Romain Sicard, a transfer from the foundation’s Orbea continental squad.

Still prominent on the banner is Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez who opted to stay with the squad in 2009 rather than chasing more lucrative offers from other pro tour teams.

So there is real potential in the 2010 squad, which was announced in its entirety last Thursday. However, the state of the Basque economy, the change in government from a nationalist to a more Madrid-friendly Socialist one, and the doping results from 2009 combine with the foundation’s UCI pro tour license expiring in 2010 to make this coming season the most critical in the squad’s history since 1995 when they rode without a major sponsor, the last pro team to manage this feat.

Sicard will be joined in 2010 by three other Orbea colleagues, Jonathan Castroviejo, Miguel Minguez and Daniel Sesma. Two other riders are transferring home to the Basque region’s team, Gorka Izagirre, from Contentpolis AMPO Murcia, and Beñat Intxausti, from Fuji-Servetto (formerly Saunier Duval, but no one wants to dwell on that).

Intxausti told the media at his introduction that “I really wanted to join the home team. I've been very happy at Fuji…but now I'm very excited.”

Igor González de Galdeano, 2009’s directeur sportif and next year’s team manager (Miguel Madariaga will be president), expressed confidence that "with Beñat Intxausti we have put the icing on the cake. He has spent three years as a professional and each season he’s been getting better."

Intxausti himself expressed the hope that he could ride the Tour de France in support of Igor Antón, said he would welcome the chance to try his hand at the Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco, and may be unique in the Basque squad in expressing an interest in riding the Spring classics, mentioning Liege-Bastogne-Liege as a race he particularly enjoyed as a young fan.

But hopes aside, the hard reality is that 2010 will be a tough year for Euskaltel-Euskadi with close scrutiny coming from all quarters. One false step off the bikes could be fatal for the team.

Euskaltel-Euskadi in 2010:

Returning riders: Samuel Sánchez, Igor Antón, Javier Aramendia, Jorge Azanza, Sergio de Lis, Koldo Fernández de Larrea, Aitor Galdos, Aitor Hernández, Iñaki Isasi, Egoi Martínez, Mikel Nieve, Juanjo Oroz, Alan Pérez, Rubén Pérez, Amets Txurruka, Pablo Urtasun, Ivan Velasco, and Gorka Verdugo.

New riders: Romain Sicard (Orbea), Jonathan Castroviejo (Orbea), Miguel Minguez (Orbea), Daniel Sesma (Orbea), Beñat Intxausti (Fotoon-Servetto), Gorka Izagirre (Contentpolis-AMPO-Mucia).

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Romain Sicard's Win

Back in 2006 we had the chance to spend a few days during the summer in the northern Basque town of Hazparne and during a road trip to Mauleon we had the chance to see a number of cyclists going up and down the steep hills of Iparralde. Well, today at Velo News they have this note about Romain Sicard, a Basque rider who just won a competition called Avenir:

Sicard wins Avenir, Van Garderen second

American Tejay van Garderen wrapped up an excellent Tour de l’Avenir with second place overall in the nine-stage U23 race across northern France.

Despite a challenging circuit in Besançon in Sunday’s final stage, there was no shaking race winner Romain Sicard (France A). Dutch rider Van Winden won the stage.

Van Garderen’s second overall was the best U.S. result at the prestigious Avenir race since Kevin Livingston was second to Frenchman Laurent Roux in 1997.

“Thanks USA team and staff,” Van Garderen wrote on Twitter. “Second overall at Tour de l’Avenir. No time to relax. Mendrisio, here we come!”

Van Garderen will race with Columbia-HTC next season and will line up later this month for a shot at the U23 world title in Switzerland.

Tenth overall last year, Peter Stetina also rode well throughout the week to cap an excellent performance by the American squad.

Sicard won Saturday’s time trial, just three seconds ahead of Van Garderen, to secure the overall title.

He becomes the first French rider to win the Avenir since Sylvain Calzati in 2004.

“It’s a great satisfaction to win the Tour de l’Avenir, the most important victory of my amateur career,” Sicard said. “It was difficult every day because we were forced to carry the weight of the race on our shoulders.”

Sicard will join many of the top amateurs heading to the pro ranks next year and he has already signed a deal to join Euskaltel-Euskadi for 2010.

Sicard, who hails from the Basque region of France, is just the second French rider to race with the Basque-backed team.

Hopefully Romain will contribute to Euskaltel Euskadi's stands during the 2010's Tour de France.

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Astarloza's Saga

Seems like the Spaniards are upset about the achievements by the Euskaltel Euskadi team in general and by Mikel Astarloza in particular during the recent edition of the Tour de France. And when a Spaniard is mad at a Basque usually what happens is that the Spaniards uses the Spanish institutions as repressive tools. Now the Spanish cycling big bosses are accusing Mikel Astarloza o using illegal substances, but Mikel is not bowing to them so he called a press conference to talk about the issue, this is the coverage by Daily Peloton:

Astarloza declares innocence

"I have not taken anything illegal." Something about this case makes no sense.

"I have not taken anything illegal," Mikel Astarloza stated bluntly on Aug 4 at a press conference in Donostia-San Sebastian.

Astarloza read a statement, with family and friends behind him. Both Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and former teammate and current Astana rider Haimar Zubeldia were part of the group showing their support for Astarloza.

Astarloza took no questions after his statement in the course of which he observed that now there is a "biological passport, it is crazy to dope. It would be sporting suicide." He stressed that he has always been "scrupulous" in following rules and has always kept the UCI informed of his whereabouts. He stated that had he intended to dope he would have "provided a false address" or otherwise have avoided UCI-sanctioned testers.

The Euskaltel-Euskadi rider admitted that "I know it is my word against the test lab, but I am innocent." Astarloza added that whatever the result of the investigation he has "lost faith in the system."

At one stage during the press conference, Astarloza held up paperwork reportedly from the Madrid lab that had conducted the test and said "there is evidence to doubt the credibility of the analysis," but he did not elaborate, preferring, he said, to explain what he meant at the "right time."

"I'm completely sure of my innocence. Completely," Astarloza said, promising that "whether the result of the second test is negative, I will not stop until I find out where the result came from. And I will. Whatever if takes, I'll find out."

Astarloza and the team, which has announced that it is standing behind the rider, await results of the B sample, which the rider immediately requested be tested after learning by e-mail from the UCI last Friday of a "non normal" test for EPO in an A sample taken out of competition on June 26.

Analysis:

Now that Mikel Astarloza has spoken, it is legitimate to ask the question "why should we believe this rider when so many other protestations of innocence have turned out to be just so much bluster?"

And this is a good question.

First, it is worth noting that the timing of the Astarloza case couldn't look worse for him. Less than a month before the June 26 out-of-competition test that is at the heart of the case against Astarloza, Euskaltel-Euskadi teammate Iñigo Landaluze tested positive for the third-generation EPO CERA during this year's Dauphiné Libéré.

But here, already, there are notable differences in what happened next. Landaluze issued a statement admitting the results, did not request the B sample be tested, made an explicit statement that no one on the team knew anything about his doping and, essentially, retired from racing. Euskaltel-Euskadi made no comments in support of the rider.

Not so when Astarloza received news of the UCI sanctions last Friday. The team almost immediately posted a statement on its web site expressing its strong support for the Tour de France stage winner. More importantly, the team announced that its support for Astarloza was based not on his word but, rather, on the fact that "after failing to find any abnormality in the internal controls...we will stand by the cyclist and support his innocence until proven otherwise." In other words, other blood and urine tests contemporaneous with the June 26 test show no evidence of EPO use. In this day and age, the team's statement is a remarkably frank expression of support. It also indicates that the foundation which manages the team is confident about its own internal controls.

The team has committed to standing by Astarloza at a time when it is under enormous pressure financially, and the decision to publicly support a rider accused of doping cannot have been taken lightly. Team manager, soon to be president, Miguel Madariaga is struggling to secure sufficient funding beyond 2010. Already, the 2009 squad and its program is smaller than its 2008 counterpart. [Among those affected by that retrenchment was Haimar Zubeldia, who moved to Astana and looks set to go to Radioshack but who nonetheless appeared with Astarloza at the Aug. 4 press conference.]

The foundation is up against two significant challenges. The first is the struggling economy in western Europe, which resulted in a downturn of 2.5% in the first quarter GDP of 2009 in the Basque region of Spain, home to almost all the team's sponsors. Additionally, the most recent elections in the Basque country saw a change in the governing party from a nationalist grouping to one led by the Socialist party with closer ties to Madrid. It's not clear just how much the Socialists will want to continue supporting an implicitly nationalist organization.

The contract extension recently offered Koldo Fernandez through 2010 contains a clause committing him to Euskaltel-Euskadi in 2011 if it continues to hold a UCI pro tour license. This wording suggests the foundation has still not ruled out the option it was exploring last year of racing as a continental squad. It has commitments from ASO, the Tour de France organizers, that it will be invited to participate if it changes its status, and such a change would allow it to shrink its budget, compete in all Basque country events, Le Tour, and, presumably, La Vuelta, and spare it the need to go to Australia, Poland, and other such places far beyond the market of its sponsors. That invitation to the Tour is likely to evaporate if the Astarloza ruling stands.

Sponsors will have an immediate out clause in their contracts in the event of the team getting mired in significant doping scandals, and you only have to look at Liberty Seguros-Würth and Saunier Duval-Prodir to see how quickly sponsors can run.

A cynic would argue at this stage that Euskaltel-Euskadi has no choice but to stand behind Astarloza. If the rider does turn out to have used EPO the future of the foundation and the team would be tenuous at best. The Landaluze case reminded people that in 2001 Txema del Olmo tested positive for EPO and was fired, as, three years later, was Jesus Losa, the team doctor named in the Cofidis affair. Aitor González twice tested positive in 2005 for a methyltestosterone metabolite. González claimed the positive test was the result of a contaminated dietary supplement purchased at a fitness center. He was suspended for two years and has now retired from the sport. 2005 was also the year in which Landaluze famously beat the UCI in a case where he argued that a sample that had returned a positive had been so badly handled by the lab there was no way of telling if the positive result was accurate.

Astarloza being found to have used EPO would, surely, end the team's credibility with too many sponsors. The foundation's only hope, the nay-sayers would claim, is that he somehow gets out from under this mess.

Additionally, after the Pyreneean stages of this year's Tour, Astarloza was frustrated and remarked that "honestly, I don't know what more we can do to win a stage." You might read that as saying that even after doping the results weren't coming.

But Astarloza's frustration can just as readily be read as a positive statement admitting, albeit resignedly, that, as Madariaga put it, Euskaltel-Euskad is fishing for talent in a "small creek" while other teams have the great big sea to draw upon.

Something about this particular case makes very little sense.

Astarloza is one of the thinkers of the peloton. He has already started to make his name as a journalist. He speaks eloquently of Basque aspirations and his statement on August 4 was in both Basque and Spanish. The stage win in this year's Tour de France was enormously rewarding to him as an athlete, but as a professional off the bike with his future ahead of him Astarloza has more to lose by doping than most cyclists. He rides for a team which he says he is "really proud to be part of. We have the name of our country on our jersey...people think about what we represent. Being Basque means you have a feeling. You must have it inside. It's a feeling of someone who loves the country, the language and the culture. It's a matter of pride. People recognize this."

It simply doesn't make sense that an athlete of Astarloza's intellect and experience would opt to use a simple form of EPO in 2009. The tests are established. It's not as if he is accused of using a drug that there was previously no known test for, or that it is an old, stored sample being tested. To use EPO in June 2009 in professional cycling you would have to have a sense of impunity beyond the likes of even Bernard Madoff or a reckless, self-destructive streak Astarloza has shown no sign of possessing. The fact that Haimar Zubeldia and Amets Txurruka joined Astarloza at his press conference indicates that two of those who know him best also appreciate that something about this case makes no sense.

Those internal test results of Euskaltel-Euskadi might just show that, in fact, the case doesn't make sense because it is all one gross error.

Update: After winning stage one of the Vuelta a Burgos, Koldo Fernandez was quoted on the team web site saying "a large part of this win is dedicated to Mikel Astarloza." The foundation has also updated the banner on its web page to prominently display Astarloza winning stage 16 of this year's Tour de France. It's fair to say the team is investing a huge amount of moral authority and taking enormous financial risks. Can anyone name a situation in which so much support has been thrown behind a rider by a team?

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Astarloza Takes Tour Stage

Great news!

Euskaltel Euskadi has finally taken a stage in this year's edition of the Tour de France. Here you have it via Yahoo News:

Astarloza tames mountains to win stage

Astarloza wins with late surge. Contador stays in yellow ahead of Armstrong and Wiggins. Voigt crashes heavily, forced out of tour

Julien Pretot

BOURG ST MAURICE, France, July 21 (Reuters) - Spain’s Mikel Astarloza used his climbing and downhill skills to win the mountainous 16th stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday as the leading contenders unsuccessfully tested each other out.

The Basque rider, 29, surged in the last two kilometres of the 159-km trek to Bourg St Maurice to give his Euskaltel team their first Tour stage victory since 2003.

“I’m a good climber, I can keep a good pace on the flat, but I’m not a sprinter. My only chance was to attack from far and I’m delighted it worked,” Astarloza told reporters.

Astarloza, who finished ninth overall in 2007, climbed to 11th place in the general classification.

Frenchman Sandy Casar had to be content with his sixth second place in a Tour stage, ahead of compatriot Pierrick Fedrigo, winner of the ninth stage in Tarbes.

Astarloza and the two Frenchmen were part of a break which shaped up in the two big climbs of the day, the Grand St Bernard and Petit St Bernard, crossing over to France from Switzerland and Italy.

Spaniard Alberto Contador retained his leader’s yellow jersey one minute 37 seconds ahead of team mate Lance Armstrong with Briton Bradley Wiggins third, 1:46 behind.

The leading contenders seemed content to neutralise each other until six kilometres from the top of the Col du Petit St Bernard when Andy Schleck suddenly raised the tempo.

Great job Euskaltel Euskadi!

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Basque Delegation at Inverness Games

This article was published at The Press and Journal:

Games to have international appeal

Record number of overseas competitors visiting Inverness for Masters World Championships

Jane Candlish

This year’s Inverness Highland Games will have an international feel, organisers said yesterday.

A record number of foreign competitors – more than 80 from 10 countries – will take part in the Masters World Championships, including the first participants from Japan and France.

And there will be a Basque feel to the whole afternoon as the Nazioen Mundua Display Team demonstrate their traditional games.

The Pyrenees group will take part in wood-chopping, stone-lifting, anvil-lifting, bale-lifting, tug o’ war and sawing.

The group made their debut in Inverness last year, with a display in Falcon Square.

The 65-strong Nazioen Mundua Party will also include traditional Basque dancers, singers and musicians and a team of Basque Yoaldunak marchers.

Yoalduna means “he who has the bells" and each marcher has two giant metal bells attached to their sheepskin jacket and the sound of ringing can be heard from some distance away.

The event, which is part of the Inverness Summer Festival, will start at the Bught Park at 11.30am on Saturday, with the shinty World Cup final between Fort William and Portree.

Heavy events will start at 1pm each day.

A spectacular opening ceremony will see the first appearance of the new official Inverness Highland Games tartan.

Inverness Provost Jimmy Gray will be the first wearer of the specially designed tartan.

The Inverness Highland Games will be the largest gathering yet staged in the Highland Capital since the event was revived in 1822.

More than 10,000 spectators are expected to attend the event, which will feature more than 600 competitors and performers.

In the last few years Scotland has joined Nabarra in the front line of the demand for self determination of the European nations trapped by the outdated but generalized conception of state. This is why we think it is positive that both nations send their own delegations so we can weave a tight net of solidarity so our voice is heard loud and clear in the European and international institutions.

For more information about the Inverness Highland Games visit their page.

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Euskaltel Euskadi and The Pyrenees

The Daily Peloton page has published an article about how Euskaltel Euskadi fared at the Pyrenees this year, here you have it:

Three Days in the Pyrenees

Christopher Fauske

Euskaltel-Euskadi finally has something to shout about in its back yard.

Le Tour de France comes through every year, and every year—whether the cols are early or late in the race—there is talk of how this is the stamping ground of Euskaltel-Euskadi, of how hundreds of thousands decked out in bright orange, waving the flag of the Basque country, and getting in the faces of riders will astonish the millions watching on TV, many of them clueless about the root cause of the fervor.

And each year when it is over, commentators and cynics alike are left wondering why, how, once again, the team from the Basque country didn’t really figure in the races.

For the 2009 version of the race, the team talked down expectations before the start. Amets Txurruka had reflected that “personally, I would prefer for the Pyrenees to come towards the end, because when other people are fresh it’s more difficult for me to stand out. At any rate, these are special stages for us and we will try to put on a good show for our fans.”

The first week’s racing played out to include some utterly unexpected time losses for potential GC leaders and highlighted the apparent dominance of Astana, with only Columbia-HTC and Garmin-Slipstream at first offering a challenge. But there were also some individual stage wins that no one saw coming and races-within-races developed. Euskaltel-Euskadi, though, was suffering, most noticeably during the TTT through Barcelona when team captain Mikel Astarloza fell twice. He later expressed gratitude to the team for limiting his loss to mere “minutes.” Importantly, though, the team responded to Astarloza’s falls that day as a team, and it was that attitude that would influence its approach in the Pyrenees.

Day one in the Pyrenees (stage 7) saw Egoi Martinez join a nine-man breakaway that stayed away to the end, ultimately crossing the line alone in fifth place, 45 seconds back. The day’s outing eased him up to fourth place in the King of the Mountains competition. But no one seemed to notice particularly, and stage 8 saw the squad send Astarloza on to the attack from the start. While stage 7 was the only mountain-top finish in the Pyrenees, there were enough climbing challenges on stage 8 for the breakaway to be whittled down as the day wore on, and after the Col d'Agnes Astarloza was one of only four riders to settle into the task of staying away for the final 40KM. He was rewarded with a third place finish, gaining 1’ 54” on the race leaders.

Despite the third place finish, frustration showed in his remarks that “Honestly, I don’t know what else can we do to achieve a stage victory.” Still, he reflected, “I have taken some time [out of the GC leaders]. We went for the victory and those two minutes are a little reward for so much work."

Stage 9 revealed that Euskaltel-Euskadi was not just launching riders each day in hopes of a stage win in the local mountains, a strategy that would most likely have seen Igor Antón get the nod for the final stage. Instead, Martinez attacked once more, this time supported by Txurruka. On the Col d’Aspin, the two of them joined the remains of an earlier escape and by the Col du Tourmalet they had firmly established themselves. Martinez, who had quietly picked up 11 KOM points on stage 8, snagged 8 more points on the Col d’Aspin and 16 on Col du Tourmalet before re-joining the chasing peloton, mission accomplished, and ending the day in the Polka Dot Jersey.

It was, he said later, something of importance to the team, and to him personally: “ [After my fifth place one stage 7] I said we are a team that has trouble winning. Yesterday, Mikel Astarloza was very strong but could not finish his great work.”

“Last night the team agreed we had to do everything possible to win the Polka Dot jersey and that we had a lot of work to do.” This was the team’s focus, and “Amets Txurruka has done an incredible job,” Martinez offered.

Toward the end of the day, after the racing was over and the circus was preparing to move on, Martinez made his way to the team bus, where he was met by team president Miguel Madariaga, who embraced his rider while reportedly close to tears. “This is the first time in the history of our team we have this jersey that is so beloved by Basque fans," Madariaga told the media who remained.

DS Igor González de Galdeano then announced the team’s intentions: “We will see if we can keep it!" Which might just change the strategy for the Alps, but before next weekend come stages of various complexion, all with a few mountain points on offer here and there, and, as Thor Hushovd neatly demonstrated on stage eight, those small points can matter.

And as George Hincapie in turn showed, one way to protect a points jersey for a teammate, or, at least, to limit the damage, is to go out and grab them for yourself. It may be that prior to the Alps, Martinez is protected not just by his own accomplishments but by his teammates attacking to protect the points on offer. And all the while Astarloza will wait for the Alps, which, as he reminds people, “have treated me very well, and in the third week [of the Tour] endurance runners like me should benefit.”

For now, though, the image that is captured in Basque eyes is that of one of their own, Egoi Martinez, on the podium in red and white. It’s not bright orange, but no one minds.

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Bilbao's Quarry

Every year around this time we are witness to the dance of the "billion euros legs". The football teams in Europe do everything and anything they can to secure the services of one of the top players in the different leagues across the continent. This year was exceptional, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco's team Real Madrid hired two of the top players in the world: Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká. They want to be able to compete against the best team in Europe, Catalonya's pride Barcelona.

But there is one team in Europe that refuses to enter this maelstrom, Athletic de Bilbao... Nabarra's pride. Here you have this article featuring Athletic published at SoccerLens:

Athletic Bilbao and ‘Cantera’

Alasdair Sim

Chances are that if you’re in the pub with your friends and the inevitable topic of football is discussed, and perhaps less inevitably Spanish football is mentioned (unless it’s a dig at Real Madrid), then Athletic Club Bilbao will not be high on the list of subjects.

But perhaps it should be. Amongst the arguments of ‘who’s better Messi or Ronaldo’, ‘who will David Villa join’, and, ‘oh by the way who’s round is it’, Athletic Club barely get a look in. However in today’s ever declining lack of footballing morals, ethics and loyalty, Athletic Bilbao at least deserve a drunken supportive rant.

Formed by British migrant workers in 1898, Bilbao has become somewhat of a romanticised club. They are team whom are idealised in a modern world where cheap footballing imports and the EU have almost brought the great youth systems of Europe it their knees.

Gone are the days of the Lisbon Lions who won the 1967 European Cup with players who were all born within 30 miles of Glasgow. Look at every Premier League team in England, only an average of 3 English players per team start every weekend. And yet, in a small part of Northern Spain a team has consistently defied the globalization of football and strove to preserve its values and fundamental beliefs in an age where football is slowly falling into an abyss filled with greed, monetization and self-interest.

The sun quietly descends behind the Stadio San Mamés, or ‘The Cathedral’ if you’re a Los Leones, as it is still sometime before the hustle and bustle of the new La Liga season comes to these shores. When you think of all the great names that have graced this pitch: the prolific Telmo Zarra, José Ángel Iribar and Joseba Etxeberria to name just a few you begin to see the curiosity and interés that surrounds this club. They are all Basque. They all hail from the Basque region of Northern Spain. And what makes the club more intriguing is that since 1912, almost 100 years ago, the Athletic Bilbao team has only consisted on Basque players. Remarkable. Do you think you would ever see Arsene Wenger or Alex Ferguson only playing footballers born in London or Manchester?

This policy of Cantera (literally ‘quarry’) is one that the club, the supporters and the Basque people are immensely proud of. By implementing this policy the club is ensuring the survival and promotion of the Basque game, they choose to nature their own talent rather than buy an import. It is also more than this. It is a stand against centralization. A voice that yells “we are Basque!”. During the 28 year reign of General Franco the Basque people suffered terrible oppression; their unique language, culture, customs, style were all banned, persecuted and oppressed because they didn’t fit in with the ideal of a one-nation Spain. It was conform or suffer the consequences. Support for Bilbao was a vote against Franco. Much in the same way that Barcelona is self-described as ‘more than a club’, Athletic Bilbao are similar, but they take it a step further.

And yet, not everyone looks upon Athletic Bilbao as the ideal football club.. Admittedly these critics mainly come from outside the region but perhaps they do have a point when they say that Cantera is restrictive to Bilbao’s progress. While it has cemented its position in footballing history as a club that is genuinely local (if you overlook the fact that it was created by foreigners), it has also been somewhat left behind when it comes to success.

They haven’t won a domestic trophy since 1984 and since we have entered the 21st century their highest finish has been 5th. Not bad you might say considering they are up against the likes of Real, Barcelona and Valencia who can open their cheque books and sign anyone from any part of the world, but when you consider their success historically in that they have won 8 La Liga titles and sit 3rd behind Real Madrid and Barcelona in terms of league titles won; the policy of Cantera looks outdated and obsolete. A throwback to a distant age when football was idyllic and naïve.

And yet this isn’t the view of the club nor the fans. Their president, Fernando Garcia Macua, announced that “we’d rather go down than change our habits, I know the supporters feel the same.” They have only a 3 million strong population in which to find their next Telmo Zarra.

If the Arsenal Board decided that the club could only buy players that are part of, or have descended from, the 7.5m people that live in London there would be a revolt. But yet we look upon Bilbao as well, somehow right and honorable. Of course clubs should have a ‘local’ presence, of course they should protect and nurture their own; it’s a sorry state of affairs that most clubs have neither the will nor the courage to do so.

So next time you’ve have one too many Carlsbergs in the local and have moved on to why Messi is a hundred times better than Ronaldo, spare a thought for Bilbao. Because unless the Basque country has a sudden baby boom of superstars, Cantera might not be around for another 100 years.

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Javier Aguirre's Basque Identity

Being a Mexican of Basque background is often misunderstood in Mexico, this is why we are glad to present this article about one of Mexico's must famous Basques, Javier Aguirre, the coach of the national soccer team published at Sign On San Diego:

Patriotic Aguirre leads with passion

El Tri coach follows no-nonsense path

Mark Zeigler

“Guernica” is the famous mural by Pablo Picasso depicting the 1937 bombing of the Basque village during the Spanish Civil War. It is painted in black, white and a dark blue.

Javier Aguirre looks at “Guernica,” at the haunting images of death and devastation, and sees another color.

Green.

Aguirre is Mexico's national soccer coach, the man charged with forging a route to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa at a time when a wide freeway has dwindled into a lonely dirt path leading into a dark, uncertain jungle. He is here not because it is necessarily a good career move, or because he thrives on the challenge of qualifying Mexico for the World Cup after a 1-3 start, or because of the six zeros on his paycheck, but because he has to.

“A commitment to my country, you know?” says Aguirre, 50, whose team plays Guatemala in a friendly today at 5 p.m. at Qualcomm Stadium. “I have to give something back to my people.”

Aguirre's nickname is “El Vasco.” The Basque. He wasn't born in the Basque region of northern Spain, but his parents were. His father fought in the Spanish Civil War at 17, was captured by Gen. Franco's nationalist army and later forced to fight for it in North Africa. His mother was from the village of Guernica.

She was there, standing in front of a church, when the planes from Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe began dropping the bombs. She was 7.

Someone grabbed her, rushed her into the church's bomb shelter.

That was 1937. Aguirre's father would get out of the army, meet Aguirre's mother, get married and look for a fresh start.

“Sometimes the worst part about the war is the post-war: no food, no job, (political) parties in jail, persecution,” says Aguirre, who speaks fluent English. “My parents decided to move to Mexico in 1950. My father changed his nationality from Spanish to Mexican.

“My parents spoke Basque at home, the food was Basque, but they knew that I was Mexican and I was born in Mexico. They told me the Mexican flag, the Mexican anthem, the Mexican language was the most important thing. My parents, they told me I have to love Mexico.”

In April, the bosses from Mexico's soccer federation called. They were desperate. The grand experiment of hiring a Swede, Sven-Goran Eriksson, had gone terribly wrong and El Tri found itself on the brink of not qualifying for a World Cup, on the brink of the unthinkable, the unfathomable.

Would he help?

Aguirre did this once before, swooping in during the rocky 2002 qualification and going 4-0-1 over the final five matches to secure a World Cup spot. He left to guide Osasuna, an unfancied club from the Basque city of Pamplona, to the UEFA Cup. From there he took Atletico Madrid, after a decade of embarrassing finishes, to the UEFA Champions League before a string of poor results led to his dismissal in February.

He was in demand. He could wait for another big club's job to open. He could stay in Spain, where his two sons attend college. He could let someone else step onto the bridge of El Tri-tanic.

And he couldn't.

A commitment to my country, you know?

There was the new life that Mexico gave to his parents, and the life it gave him. There also was 1981, when Aguirre was part of the national-team player pool that failed to qualify for the 1982 World Cup in Spain.

“I don't want to talk about it, but of course I know what would happen if we don't qualify for this World Cup,” he says. “I remember that feeling. It was a disaster, terrible. It was devastating, for the federation, for the people, for everyone.”

So he said yes.

San Diego is a city Aguirre knows well. He has owned a condominium in La Jolla Colony for the past decade, vacationing here with his family during the offseason, going to beach, attending Padres games.

But this trip is no vacation. “We are not here to relax,” he says.

Aguirre is known for crafting teams in his image, of a kid discovered by pro scouts relatively late in his career, of a player who relied on raw grit more than raw talent, of someone who never stops working. Superstars often don't flourish in his system, and he is not afraid to jettison them if they pout.

“He tries to make a good group,” goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa says.

Aguirre also talks of wanting “hungry players,” and one of his first acts as national coach was to eliminate their per diem on road trips. Not so they literally wouldn't eat, but to reinforce the notion that you play for pride on the national team and nothing else.

His roster for today's game, and for the CONCACAF Gold Cup that begins next week, has few of the veterans who play for some of the biggest clubs in Europe – much to the consternation of Mexico's predatory soccer media. In their place are youngsters with little international experience.

Or, in other words, the exact type of player Aguirre loves to coach. To mold. To motivate.

“The Mexican national team does not depend on anybody,” Aguirre says. “There are no starters. We are all Mexican. There are some people who may not agree with me. They may have favorite players. But that's the right I have been given, to choose who I want.”

He taps his coaching jersey. It's green.

“I need people who want to win, who are proud of this shirt,” he says, “proud to be on the national team, proud of the anthem, proud to be Mexican.”

.... ... .

Euskaltel Euskadi's Odds

This article about how Euskaltel Euskadi may fare in this year's edition of the Tour de France was published at Daily Peloton:

2009 Tour de France - Euskaltel/Euskadi Pronóstico

Christopher Fauske

The orange warriors of the Basque team bring its best balanced and strongest team to the tour. The team is aiming for a good showing and stage wins... but where and when in the 21 days of racing will they find the opportunity and magic?

It’s easy to make light of the chances of Basque team Euskaltel-Euskadi in the Tour de France. One leading US publication estimated 10,000:1 as the ratio of the number of Basque flags on the mountains to the number of stage wins by the team. Mainly, this easy joke pays tribute to the importance the team has in contemporary Basque society.

It might also turn out to be unintentionally prescient as the squad does have a legitimate shot at picking up a stage win or two. Those chances partially lie in lucky breaks going the way of the orange squad; but they also lie in the hard work that DS Igor González de Galdeano has invested these past two years.

Before dismissing the team completely, it’s worth bearing in mind that prior to the Olympics last year one member of the team’s staff told me that Samuel Sanchez had, maybe, a “one per cent chance of Gold.” And look who won.

So where, and under what conditions, might the team pick up those stage wins?

First, the structure of this year’s Tour teams means that much is likely to be unpredictable. Astana is sending 4 legitimate GC contenders to the event. It will surely take a remarkable feat of discipline to figure out the appropriate tactics for that team on any given day.

The defending champion is now riding for a team that struggled throughout the Giro to protect its top rider, and at least some of Carlos Sastre’s best chances lie in long, lethal solo attacks on the climbs. Such attacks should shatter the field. They will also bring a response from Saxo Bank on behalf of one or other Schleck brother. Rabobank will be sending Giro champion Denis Menchov up the climbs. Cadel Evans seems to once again be trying to win le Tour with a solo effort.

Put all that together, take away race radios for two stages, throw in the flat stages made for Mark Cavendish, add the fact that Mont Ventoux is on the penultimate day (and somebody is going to have try to save something for that even while fending off attacks throughout the stages leading up to it) and it should be fiendishly difficult for any team to know just how to approach many of the race days. Several teams will be looking to take advantage of any resulting confusion in race tactics, Euskaltel-Euskadi among them.

Euskaltel-Euskadi’s GC contender is Mikel Astarloza. This will be his seventh tour. He finished 9th two years ago and sixteenth last year. His form at the 2009 Dauphiné Libéré was promising, and he was more comfortable with long solo climbs than he has been in the past. As other riders look to keep an eye on each other, Astarloza might just be able to pull away on one of the critical climbs and steal a march on his rivals. If his GC position during the transition stages isn’t too great a threat to race leaders, he also has the experience and the talent to join a long escape and help it stay away.

The team has three other potential stage winners in Amets Txurruka, who made a splash on his 2007 tour debut, picking up the most combative rider award, joining a long break on stage 12 that stayed away until the final kilometer, and wearing the white jersey for best young rider, albeit that he was “borrowing” it. Txurruka has not lost the ability to stay away on long breaks, and his increasing experience should help him on the road, especially those two stages that are going to be radio-free.

Additionally, the timing of the mountain stages and the need of several teams and a bunch of riders to gauge their efforts suggest that on several stages if the right group of riders get into a breakaway, they will be able to stay away from a peloton unlikely to be that interested in a chase. Look for Txurruka to contest at least one of those stages.

Koldo Fernández is Euskaltel-Euskadi’s first legitimate sprinter. Odds have to be on Mark Cavendish to win any sprint stage where he is with the lead group in the final kilometer, but there are two or three other sprinters with teams capable of countering at least some of Columbia-High Road’s lead-out efforts. On days when it is their intention, Euskaltel-Euskadi is fielding a team that can deliver Fernández to the final kilometer in good shape. Look for him to mix it up after this and to seek an unexpected opening, perhaps capitalizing on other teams’ final run-in countering of Cavendish’s moves.

The team has made it clear that Igor Antón is going to be looking for a stage win. Last year, his campaign was marred by injury, but anyone who saw his stage sixteen win in the 2006 Vuelta a España between Almería and the Calar Alto observatory knows he can climb. If Astarloza can rely on the rest of his team for support, the Euskaltel-Euskadi will be able to send Antón on his own forays. This might happen as early as the Pyrenees and definitely in the Alps. Who knows what Mont Ventoux will bring?

There is always at least one stage in the Tour when the day’s winner is a surprise to everyone, and if you were to look for Euskaltel-Euskadi’s potential “surprise,” neither former Lance Armstrong lieutenant Egoi Martinez nor Alan Pérez seems implausible.

In short, this is most likely the best balanced, strongest team Euskaltel-Euskadi has yet brought to the Tour.

Predictions: Mikel Astarloza, 7th in GC. Koldo Fernández, at least one second place stage finish. Most likely stage win, stage 11. Igor Antón, most likely stage win, stage 9 or 17. Amets Txurruka, most likely stage win, stage 13.

Hopefully he's right.

.... ... .

Euskaltel's '09 Tour's Team

This article about Euskaltel Euskadi's line up for this year's edition of the Tour de France was published at VeloNews:

Euskaltel names Tour team

Euskaltel-Euskadi will be hoping for big performances at the Tour de France following relatively lackluster spring campaign.

The Basque Country-based Euskaltel team will ride this year without the services of consistent top-10 threat Haimar Zubeldia (who’s already punched himself a ticket back to the Tour with Astana), so the team will look to Igor Antón and Mikel Astarloza to fill the void.

Astarloza has already finished in the top-10 and rode well to a top-5 finish at the Dauphiné Libéré. He’s a steady climber who always seems to be there in the key moments.

Antón will likely forget about the GC and instead focus on trying to win a mountain stage, ideally at Arcalis, when tens of thousands of orange-clad Basque fans will be clogging the roads in the Pyrénées.

Also skipping the Tour this year is Olympic champion Samuel Sánchez, who wants to focus on winning the Vuelta a España and the world championships in the second half of the season.

Koldo Fernández will try his luck in the sprints while Egoi Martínez and Amets Txurruka, winner of the most aggressive prize in 2007, will be on the attack.

Euskaltel-Euskadi for Tour de France

* Igor Antón
* Mikel Astarloza
* Koldo Fernández
* Egoi Martínez
* Juanio Oroz
* Alan Pérez
* Rubén Pérez
* Amets Txurruka
* Gorka Verdugo

Best of lucks to all of them, we will miss Zubeldia.

.... ... .

Edurne Pasaban's Rise to the Top

This article about Nabarra's most famous mountain climber, Edurne Pasaban, was published at The Independent:

Edurne Pasaban: Queen of the top of the world

A woman from the Basque country has conquered nearly all of the world's highest peaks – and now she's racing for a record title

Elizabeth Nash

When Edurne Pasaban was 16 and still at school, she set off from her home town of Tolosa in the Spanish Basque country for an Alpine holiday with her family, and climbed nearly 5,000m to scale Mont Blanc. A year later, in 1990, she headed for the Andes and conquered seven new peaks, reaching a height of 6,310m at Ecuador's mighty Mount Chimborazo.

She was passionate about climbing, but it took her several years to turn professional. By then, Pasaban had taken an engineering degree, set up her own business and suffered, by her own admission, a disastrous love life. Today, she is well on the way to beating her female mountaineering rivals to a remarkable new record.

In 2001, she began her Himalayan challenge: to conquer 14 of the world's highest mountains, those more than 8,000m high. First she scaled Everest, the world's highest, then Makalu, Cho Oytu, Lhotse, and Gasherbrum II and I. And in 2004 she vanquished K2, considered the world's most dangerous mountain, where she brushed with death and lost two toes to frostbite.

Last week, Pasaban, now 35, conquered the mighty Himalayan peak of Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest mountain, at her first try; it is her 12th "eight-thousander". Her achievement puts her within reach of her ambition to be the first woman in the world to climb 14 mountains higher than 8,000m.

But Pasaban faces fierce opposition, with two other women competing in the race for the honour: the Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, 38, conquered Lhotse, her 12th peak, last Wednesday, two days after Pasaban's record-breaking achievement, running her a close second. The Italian Nives Meroi, 47, remains one down: she had to call off her attempt on Kangchenjunga last week because her climbing partner and husband Romano Benet, was exhausted.

Only 13 men have mastered this feat since the Italian Reinhold Messner blazed the trail in 1986. They include fellow Basques Juanito Oiarzabal, the first Spaniard to conquer "the 14" in 1999, and Alberto Iñurrategi, who did it in 2002. Oiarzabal is among Pasaban's climbing companions and he partnered her to the summit last week, in a gruelling 16-hour ascent from their fourth camp at 7,700m. Other teammates, Asier Izaguirre and Álex Chicón, sometimes kill time on the mountain – and wear themselves out – by engaging in the traditional Basque competition of chopping tree-trunks, she writes in her blog. "They are good, true friends. They have to be, otherwise I couldn't do it."

Pasaban descended safely to base camp in Nepal on Wednesday with the help of oxygen brought up by a couple of Sherpas, at the limit of her endurance and suffering frostbitten toes. "I just want to rest," she said. "Thanks to my team, because if it weren't for them I wouldn't be here. I thought I might die on that mountain. Now I just want to rest."

"You don't really enjoy being at the summit," Pasaban confessed on television before tackling Kangchenjunga. "You get there, you're exhausted, you take photos and you know you've got a long, difficult descent. You just want to go home. The best bit is when you're approaching the top, the last four or five metres before you reach it. It's really hard and takes ages."

Kangchenjunga is considered one of the most difficult mountains in the Himalayas. Pasaban's climb was slow and hazardous, in the face of strong winds and corridors of ice, the route made treacherous by rocks that obliterated any clear trail. After reaching the peak on Monday, the team stayed overnight in camp to rest, before making their descent. "We are very tired, but very happy to have reached the summit in good health," Pasaban told her parents by telephone.

She is from a prosperous family who had hoped their eldest daughter would take on the family engineering business. "It took them a while to adjust to my choice of career but now they're thrilled," she insists. After a stint in Barcelona ("for love, but it didn't work out"), Pasaban returned to her homeland and opened a restaurant and rural guesthouse in the Basque village of Zizurkil, near Tolosa. She still collaborates with the Barcelona business school where she took her MBA, drawing on her experience of extreme situations to give lectures on teamwork.

Her next mountain is Shishapangma, which she plans to climb this autumn; then Annapurna, in 2010, to complete the historic 14 before, she hopes, either of her rivals. She seems cool about the challenge. "I have to do it now, and if I don't, that's that."

Her apparently zen-like approach contrasts with the steely conviction of many who undertake such challenges. Pasaban says she lacks that inner strength. "I'm very weak inside. Just because I climb mountains it seems I must be very strong, but I'm not," she told the daily newspaper El Pais last month in Bilbao, while preparing her latest expedition.

"I was in my thirties when I started questioning being a professional mountaineer. I wondered if it was worth so much sacrifice. I wavered between the mountain and my work as an engineer. My life is unstable, and that instability sent me into a depression I escaped only by believing in what I do."

After scaling "the 14", she wants to climb Everest again, she says, this time without oxygen. Then her ambition is to quit the mountain for motherhood. "Now is the time of the eight-thousanders," she said four weeks ago. "When I've done that, I want to be a mother; that was the dilemma that made me depressed."

Spending so much time alone with men on the mountain is not as glamorous as it sounds. "You can imagine the conversations they have amongst themselves ..." And living in such intense comradeship makes it harder, not easier, to find love, she finds. "A partner, when you're surrounded by all these men? It's impossible. My love life is terrible."

But, she was asked, suppose you had a daughter who set off for the Himalayas? "I'd back her, of course."

Seems like the Spanish government prevented her from taking an ikurriña with her this time and that's why in the picture available at The Independent she is holding a TVE (Spain's state television network) banner.

.... ... .

Spain's Clumsy Censorship

As you may know by now, the Basque and Catalonian fans that were present at the Mestalla stadium in Valencia to witness the final of the Copa del Rey tournament between Basque team Athletic de Bilbao and Catalonian team Barcelona decided to express what Basques and Catalans feel regarding the anthem and king of an expansionist state that has impossed those foreign symbols on them.

Knowing that something like this could happen, the government lead by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero decided to skip the opening ceremony and in doing so try to ensure that the entire world would learn that Basques and Catalonians do not feel Spaniards, they did it in such a clumsy way that now the Spanish government is the laughing stock around the world. Of course, when something like this happens in a totalitarian state with a king that was selected to the charge by the worst fascist dictator in Europe then someone has to take the blame and in this case, the scape goat is the Sports Director at the state television according to this article published at Soccer365:

Spanish TV station in hot water

While showing the game between Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona, Television Espanola (TVE) cut to reporters in Bilbao - the largest city in the Basque country - and Catalonian capital Barcelona instead of showing live footage of the Spanish national anthem being drowned out by whistles and boos from the two sets of fans at the Mestalla stadium in Valencia.

The station then aired the playing of the national anthem during half-time in the game, but with the jeers of the supporters edited out while also showing images of some of the supporters, who hail from two of Spain's most separatist regions, holding their hands to their hearts.

Antonio Gutierrez, PP representative for the Spanish autonomous region of Melilla, accused Luis Fernandez, president of the company which owns the channel, of "deciding which images or sounds may or may not be harmful for audiences".

TVE 1 presenter Juan Carlos Rivero apologised to viewers at half-time, explaining the decision to cut away from the stadium while the anthem was being played had been due to "human error".

The company which owns the channel, RTVE, then issued a statement at the end of the broadcast which again put the incident down to human error.

This morning TVE director Javier Pons held a press conference at which he announced that the station's director for sport, Julian Reyes, had left the broadcaster as a result of the incident, and that "an investigation had been begun to seek out others who may have been responsible".

On the pitch Barcelona overcame the surprise of conceding an early goal to Gaizka Toquero by romping to a comfortable 4-1 win thanks to strikes from Yaya Toure, Lionel Messi, Bojan Krkic and Xavi.

Barca are one point away from clinching the Primera Division title while Manchester United lie await in the Champions League final in Rome on May 27.

There you have it, more evidence that Spain has not yet evolved since the time when Francisco Franco ruled with iron fist.

.... ... .

Messi's Basque Nemesis

This article featuring Basque football player Koikili Lertxundi was published at Times OnLine:

Only way to stop a genius

Chelsea can learn from one of the few to have tamed Messi

Ian Hawkey

KOIKILI LERTXUNDI is an unusual footballer. He has a degree in history and was once the Spanish under-15 champion at Greco-Roman wrestling. During his spare afternoons, he runs a human resources business in Vitoria, the capital of the Basque country. In the mornings, he drives his camper van to his other work, parks up next to the sports cars and high-performance vehicles of his colleagues and trains as the left-back for Athletic Bilbao.

Koikili , 28, is an especially rare footballer in this season’s Spanish first division for another reason: he has tamed Lionel Messi. Many full-backs have tried, several have approached the task with an X-rated brutality, but very few have anaesthetised the menace of the little Argentinian as effectively as Koikili. Messi scored when Barcelona defeated Athletic 2-0 at Camp Nou last month but only by converting a penalty. Otherwise, he had a diminished influence, tightly policed throughout by the brainy Basque.

“I was impressed with the marking job Koikili did,” said Barça’s head coach, Pep Guardiola, who is usually keener to draw referees’ attention to how often Messi gets fouled.

“With Messi, there’s no special secret,” says Koikili. “The key is to stay right on top of him, stick close and not let him enter a duel with the ball at his feet. Once he does that, he’s at his best.”

Koikili was Leo’s limpet for most of the Barça-Athletic game, so much so that Messi drifted into a more central position and even briefly tried switching wings. He had scarcely seemed so thwarted since, 12 months ago, Barcelona went 180 minutes without a goal in the European Cup semi-final games against Manchester United. On those nights, his marshal was Patrice Evra.

You can take a good guess at Messi’s first instinct in a duel. He is conspicuously left-footed and, though his ability to attack the space outside the left-back and cross or control with his right foot has improved in the past three seasons, his natural deviation is to move inside the pitch from right wing. When Real Madrid went to Camp Nou in December, coach Juande Ramos put Sergio Ramos, a right-footer, at left-back to counter the manoeuvre. Other managers have thought likewise.

“You can understand it,” says Koikili. “Messi is stronger on his left foot and, as his marker, you are aware that’s the side he’s going to want to go past you. But left-footer or right-footer, the main thing is to stop him being in the position to set off on one of those runs.”

Continues...

.... ... .

On The Road

This article about the Basque cycling team Euskaltel-Euskadi was published at the Daily Peloton:

Euskaltel-Euskadi On the Road - 2009

In American parlance, the emphasis is on rebuilding, as Basque team Euskaltel-Euskadi takes to the 2009 season with a reduced roster compared with 2008 and an emphasis on youth.

By Christopher Fauske

In American parlance, the emphasis is on rebuilding, as Basque team Euskaltel-Euskadi takes to the 2009 season with a reduced roster compared with 2008 and an emphasis on youth. Of course, it is a campaign strategy complicated—or at least touched by irony - in that the squad is headed by Olympic gold medalist Samuel Sanchez. Sanchez will be a marked man this year, and any Euskaltel-Euskadi contingent in a race that includes him will have little opportunity to test its mettle under the radar.

One wrinkle of Sanchez’s higher profile is the question of the role Koldo Fernandez will play in the 2009 campaigns. He is the team’s first legitimate sprinter, a rider they intend to help develop into a weapon they have never before brought to the peloton. Fernandez is an example of how Euskaltel-Euskadi is developing its tactical options under the leadership of DS Igor González de Galdeano, a veteran of earlier incarnations of a team which distinguished itself for the passion of its fans and with very few results to show for it. Basque fans want to see their riders attack on the mountains, says team press secretary Jesus Aizkorbe. As a youth, “Koldo was a great sprinter, but when he was an amateur he tried to be good in the mountains.” Since he joined the team in 2004, managers have “convinced him to be a sprinter. He’s unique in the team’s history. We have had fast riders before, but not sprinters.”

Fernandez’s presence on the team and Sanchez’s increasing skills as a one-day specialist has led to the Basque team’s interest in the northern classics shifting from one of grudging acceptance that UCI pro tour rules required their presence, to an attitude of at least some interest. It is an interest tempered by Sanchez’s focus on preparing for Le Tour. Rather than taking both Fernandez and Sanchez to the north, then, Euskaltel-Euskadi has sent one squad north with their sprinter while another works to support Sanchez in the south.

It was a strategy that started less than convincingly when Fernandez managed 51st place in the Tour of Flanders, having missed all major breaks. But things looked up a bit on April 8 when Fernandez managed sixth in a field sprint at Gent-Wevelgem and Sanchez moved into second overall in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco in front of home crowds.

In 2009, the team is choosing to stay away from some races in which it has historically played no great part, chief among them the Giro D’Italia, where the team’s 2008 experience was described by one critic as that of “strangers in a strange land” and by another as “dreadful.”

Aizkorbe is blunt in his assessment, “We have no interest in the Giro. In 2005 and after we were obligated to go, but there’s no interest for us or our sponsors.” With the separation of the pro tour from the historic races, Euskaltel-Euskadi is “free to decide,” while acknowledging that the team “must compete in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and Le Tour.” Aizkorbe is clear that ASO has committed to offering the team a Tour invitation for the next several years.

In 2008, the foundation that runs the team finished the year about €1M in the red and is looking forward to a less expensive 2009 campaign. The size of the squad has been reduced from 27 to 23, a little larger than originally planned. The most noticeable change from 2008 is the departure of long-time rider Haimar Zubeldia, now with Astana.

Despite these challenges, team management is increasingly confident of its ability to attract the best in Basque talent, as the return of Egoi Martinez from Discovery in 2008, and the decision of Sanchez to stay after his Olympic medal suggest. After the Olympics, foundation president Miguel Madariaga publicly acknowledged he would not be able to offer a salary much larger than that which Sanchez had accepted earlier in the year. The contract was renegotiated, but Sanchez endeared himself to team and fans alike when he stated bluntly “I see myself at Euskaltel.”

Sanchez’s perspective is not unique. Mikel Astarloza says pointedly, “for years we had the pressure [of having to keep up]. But now we come with a feeling of pride.” Under the leadership of Madariaga and Igor González de Galdeano the riders have solidified behind a philosophy that “the team knows it’s known. The riders know there are big teams out there, but it doesn’t mean our riders are not competitive. Their mission is to do their best. Now, when riders reach this level they choose to stay here,” says Aizkorbe. With a little prodding he says of the rider whose name is still associated with the team, “Iban Mayo was a completely different case. He never bought into the idea of Euskaltel-Euskadi.”

As part of its commitment to developing younger riders, the team is also looking to offer longer contracts. Within the pro tour peloton, contracts for all but the very biggest names are for one or two years, but Euskaltel-Euskadi is moving to offer three-year contracts and so its staff is paying more attention to the younger riders. “You have to be confident to offer a contract like that,” says Aizkorbe.

Still, there are challenges despite the greater flexibility in scheduling, the addition of a pure sprinter to the team’s top flight, and the options offered by having a one-day threat in Sanchez who is also a legitimate Grand Tour contender.

Fans and Le Tour

The fan base has at times got out of hand, and organizers of Le Tour responded by changing when the race comes through the Pyrenees to try to get past the ugly TV images of the recent past. The riders have become advocates of better behavior, reminding the Basque population that the world is watching. “There were really difficult days in the Pyrenees,” Aizkorbe admits, and for a while tour organizers avoided weekend stages in the Pyrenees, but although “it’s a bigger problem than the team can solve the team tries to get the message to fans. But there are people who don’t understand cycling. They are soccer fans who go there to have a party. It’s not comfortable.”

Still, these days the team is in the position of trying to adjust people’s expectations. In the past, “the team has been criticized by journalists for trying too hard to win a stage in the Pyrenees,” Aizkorbe says, “but now it’s not enough for us just to win a stage, so we cannot afford anymore to go into the Pyrenees and then relax. For us it’s better when the Alps come first,” as they will not in 2009.

As for the Vuelta a Espana, which famously avoids the Basque country, Euskaltel-Euskadi would very much like to see it move back to the spring slot it used to occupy, after the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and before Le Tour. It would in some sense allow the team to return to its main purpose, representing the Basque country where, in Astarloza’s words “cycling has reached the people.”

.... ... .

Is Not Our National Side

It's been 42 years since Spain's side has played in the Basque region. And there is a good reason for it, the Basques do not support the team that represents the colonialist state that denies us our right to self determination, to the extreme that they won't allow the teams representing the nations trapped within the Spanish State nightmare to take part it international events unlike England that allows Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to do so.

But things changed after the botched electoral process last month in which the Spaniards on an all out attack against democracy were able to finally take over the Parliament in the Basque Autonomous Community. Now they want to celebrate and they will do so by adding insult to injury by having their national team playing on Basque turf.

There is supposed to be a debate in Spain following the revelation that the Spanish Football Federation wants to play in the Basque Country. It’s normal in Spain for friendly and some other international matches to be played in the regions, but the Basque Country has been ignored since 1967, 42 years ago.

It’s down to nationalist politics of course, and the thought of Spanish flags being waved in the San Mamés stadium is simply unthinkable.

Now the Federation President, Ángel María Villar, who is an ex Athletic de Bilbao player himself, has made the idea one of his objectives before his mandate ends in four years time, this shows that as usual, Spain resorts to traitors in order to advance its colonialist strategy.

.... ... .

Football's Identity Matters

The article you are about to read was published at Goal.com and it tip-toes around the fact that the inhabitants of Euskal Herria and Catalunya (two out of the three abducted nations by Spanish colonialism) do not feel Spanish and therefore do not support Spain's national football team. Here you have it:

World Cup Debate: Spain - Divided, But Still Successful

Goal.com takes a look at that land of many cultures - Spain - and the status of the national team...

It's a rare country that has everyone within its borders cheering for national team success. Virtually everywhere on earth you will find ex-pats, immigrants, and the children of immigrants - sitting quietly at home while the majority are out watching the national team compete in the World Cup.

What's more, in quite a few you will even find native-born citizens, stretching back generations, who are not the least bit interested in the fortunes of the national side. Perhaps nowhere in Europe is this more true than in Spain.

A House Divided

The Spanish football roadshow - easily one of Europe's more mobile national teams - seems to cover a heck of a lot of ground, but this is deceptive. The vast, vast majority of the matches are played in the various pro-Spain heartlands of Castile and Leon, Castile-La Mancha, Andalucia, Asturias, Extremadura, and even Galicia and Murcia. Valencia is well-resented, too, while La Rioja, Navarre, Aragon and the Canaries are also visited. But Catalonia? The Basque Country? No.

There are parts of Spain, then, in which the national side simply is not relevant. Catalonia is the first example: sure, there are Spain fans there, but not many, borne out by the fact that the Furia Roja have not played there since 2000. (To give some context, Spain have in the meantime visited such footballing hotbeds as Vila-Real, Elche, Logrono, and Leon.)

More amazingly, the last time Spain hosted international opposition in Bilbao was in 1967 - at the height of Francoism, in other words - and San Sebastian/Donostia in 1923. Have they any immediate plan to return? Why would they? The attendance would probably be low and the outcry massive.

Flying The Flag

Yet despite the groundswell of opposition at grassroots level, when it comes to professional football, Spanish recognition remains the big prize. Proud Catalans such as Xavi and Bojan without hesitation - and without moderation - play for Spain as readily as they would their clubs. So fulsome were Xavi's efforts last summer, in fact, that he was named Euro 2008's Player of the Tournament.

That's not to say that there cannot be tensions. This current squad is undoubtedly one blessed with camaraderie and spirit, but previous coaches have not quite managed the same. Just look at Javier Clemente. He was accused by Marca, among others, of having a bias towards his beloved Athletic Bilbao, and selecting players who had 'a couple of half-decent games' for the San Mames outfit. Later, Luis Aragones weathered the same controversy for his Atletico Madrid predilection, but in Clemente's case there was, sadly, an ethnic undertone to both his (alleged) policy and some of his critics.

In other words, it's a minefield, and specifically so in the Basque country. This video, courtesy of Carlsberg and partofthegame.tv, featuring football writer Phil Ball, may explain more.

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What they do not point out is that unlike England that allows for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to play in international tournaments, Spain will not even allow Euskal Herria, Catalunya and Galiza to do the same which once again proves that those who call the shots in Madrid have little regard for the right to self determination of all nations in the world.

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A Cycling Paradise

From what the press usually publishes about Euskal Herria you would never guess that this tiny nation in Western Europe is a paradise for those who enjoy practicing sports. There is excellent surfing spots like Mundaka, Zarautz and Biarritz, there is plenty of places where to go hiking and well, there is a wide range of options for those who love cycling. PezCycling News published this article about what the Basque landscape and geography offer:

GIANT TOURS: Cycling The Basque Country & Pyrenees

Friday, March 13, 2009

We first met Giant Tours last year as they launched with trips through the Pyrenees hosted by former World Champ Abraham Olano. For 2009 they’ve expanded their catalogue of cycling adventures, and the company’s Javier Sánchez offers some new reasons to go cycling in Basque Country…

Special Travel Feature By Javier Sánchez-Beaskoetxea of Giant Tours -

The Basque Country, Euskadi as it’s known in the Basque language, is a magical place for all lovers of cycling, and also is one of Lonely Planet's Top 10 Best, must-see, destinations for 2009. This green land has given the sport some of its great riders, cyclists who have shone in the world’s greatest races, like Marino Lejarreta, Abraham Olano or Miguel Indurain. GIANT TOURS offers the chance to enjoy cycling, gastronomy, life and this beautiful scenery.

The Basque Country is just a step away from some of the most important climbs in the Pyrenees, scene of some of the most historic stages in the Tour de France. So it’s a perfect chance to ascend the legendary slopes in the good company of some ex-pros, like Abraham Olano, World Champion, or Roberto Heras, three-time winner of the Vuelta a España, both of whom are present on some our our trips.

GIANT TOURS is a biking holiday company set up by Giant Bicycles in Spain, and all the people who are a part of it have one thing in common – a passion for cycling and life. And it’s this passion that we transmit with our cycling tours. We love riding the roads of the Basque Country and the Pyrenees, the ideal place to enjoy cycling at any level, whether you want to train hard or simply go for a relaxing ride.

Each cyclist who signs up for one of our trips can be sure that he or she is in the hands of people who truly love their work and who know the Basque Country and the Pyrenees perfectly, because we’re playing on our ground, a place which we want to share with everybody.

The TRIPS

We offer many trips in our catalogue, but a few a worthy of note here. For those of you looking for a great adventure, we suggest riding through the Pyrenees from the Mediterranean to the Bay of Biscay on the TRANSPYRENEAN.

What cyclist has never daydreamed about going on a fantastic trip by bike? If we pick up a map of Europe, our attention will soon be drawn to the Pyrenees, whose name brings us memories of some of cycling's greatest moments from more than 100 years of history of the Tour de France. And the idea of crossing this majestic mountain range from sea to sea via its legendary climbs will have occurred to more than one.

This trip allows any cyclist to make this dream come true, since we provide all the organization, transport, accommodation and support necessary. So, cyclists only have to think about enjoying each stage with the only worry of hauling themself up the awesome climbs.

This trip consists of one day’s travel by bus from Hendaye to the Mediterranean, plus seven fantastic days cycling back on the most famous roads in the French Pyrenees following the D-618 and the D-918 from Argelès-sur-Mer to St. Jean-de-Luz - including a rest day in Luchon where you can just rest or climb other famous Cols like Port de Balés or Superbagneres.

THE TOUR DE FRANCE: In July, from 10th July to 14th July, we’ve prepared a trip to the French Pyrenees to see the best race in the world. During the stage in Argeles Gazost, at the bottom of Tourmalet, we’ll have the chance to live the Tour de France and to climb some of the most famous Cols of this race, like Col d’Aubisque, Luz Ardiden or Hautacam.

LUXURY TRIPS

Dream landscapes, legendary climbs, cuisine for connoiseurs, surprising museums, exquisite hospitality. All this, and more, is offered by our GIANT VIP TOUR – an extraordinary holiday for lovers of cycling, travelling and life, all in six marvellous days divided between the Basque Country and the French Pyrenees, through green valleys and along an amazing coastline, with visits to the best restaurants and climbs up cycling legends like the Tourmalet or the Aubisque. What more could anyone who loves cycling and life ask for?

The restaurants and hotels have been especially chosen in order to make your stay a delight for all your senses. From the moment guests set foot in Bilbao Airport until the moment you have to leave, you’ll have the pleasure of being treated like royalty. You won’t have to worry about a thing, since at every moment GIANT TOURS will be available for your every need. For example, you’ll be able to enjoy riding a GIANT carbon composite bike, and we’ll even invite you to a beer if you fancy one!

THE FISH & WINE ROUTE travels through the breathtaking landscape of the old commercial route which joined the inland wine-growing areas with the coast for the trade of fresh fish for wine and other produce. From La Rioja Alavesa to the coastal villages of Bizkaia, guests travel through the Basque Country from south to north as we discover the changing countryside and enjoy the delicate shades of colour which are characteristic of this marvellous corner of Europe.

Read more about these and other trips at: Giant Tours

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Pelota in the USA

This article about the practice and enjoyment of pelota (the quintessential Basque sport) in the USA comes to us via The Miami Herald:

THE KING OF JAI-ALAI

Goiko is the king of jai-alai

BY NICHOLAS SPANGLER

The following scene occurred in the fifth point of the 12th game at Miami Jai-Alai on a Saturday night last spring.

It features two Basques using question mark-shaped wicker baskets fastened to each man's right hand to fling a small, smooth, very hard ball against a granite wall at lethal velocity for the delectation of a small crowd.

The taller of the pair is Inaki Osa, also known by his playing name, Goikoetxea (say Goy-koe-ay-chay-ah, Goiko for short). He's 27, 6-foot-3 and 204 pounds. He's winner of the last five jai-alai world championships and the best player alive, maybe the best ever. He's playing a guy named Jabi, who is no slouch but is probably not bound for jai-alai Valhalla, either.

They're on a three-walled (front, back and left-side) court that's 176 feet long, 40 feet tall and 45 feet wide, each trying to throw the ball so it hits the front wall and bounces twice or hits the side netting before the other can catch and return. Boy, are they throwing hard: two prosthetically enhanced Joba Chamberlains throwing the hell out of the ball and every time it hits the wall it cracks cold and hard and dangerous.

Backhands are exchanged. Six, seven, eight in a row hit the front wall halfway up with heavy topspin at 120 miles per hour and skid back along the side wall. Goiko throws backhand number eight, steps to the center of the court to cover the wide ball, then back in when he sees Jabi's ball hugging the side. He's poaching up, looking to grab this off the wall early.

Early's good, because it opens more angles of the court, and because it shaves Jabi's reaction time. Early's great, unless Jabi's ball -- because it hits some tiny shard of obtruded granite or because, this long into the rally, it's hotter and tackier than expected -- bounces hard off the side wall instead of skidding. And of course this is what happens, too fast for Goiko to make the catch, so fast all he can do is jerk his basket out of the way and swing around to face the back wall.

He's going to take the rebound -- a defensive shot, but doable, only now he's so far out of position he has to run back and his weight's still moving toward the back wall when he catches, twists and lofts the thing 130 feet toward the front wall in clear violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of certain laws of physics.

Jai-alai means ''merry festival'' in Basque, though Basques themselves call it cesta punta, "basket point.''

WANING IN AMERICAN

A few words about the state of the sport in America: it is sick. If it dies, future generations will gaze uncomprehendingly at documentary evidence of its existence consisting of one cameo appearance in Tron (1982) and those few seconds in the opening credits of Miami Vice (1984). ''What the hell was that?'' somebody will say, the way you would if you happened across a game of jeu de paume or SlamBall.

American jai-alai has no amateur participation to speak of, partly because it's difficult to play and every so often, somebody gets hit in the face. Sometimes this results in death or severe injury. Ernest Hemingway saw it in Havana:

"Red carnations began to spread on his white shirt. His face was completely crimson . . . he was bathed in blood and still he remained on his feet. The other pelotaris (players) and the judges ran up to him and led him to the infirmary. Frightened, I also ran to the treatment room and when I arrived I was amazed that the victim received me with a sorrowful smile. He shook my hand . . . and passed out.''

Jai-alai is expensive. All the baskets are handmade, come from Spain and cost $500 or more. A professional will go through one or more a month. Only six very good basket makers are still alive and all are older than 50. Balls are made from two flaps of English goatskin sewed around a core of Filipino rubber, cost $125 and might last a game before the goatskin needs to be repaired.

American jai-alai is a betting, not a spectator sport, sustained not by ticket sales and corporate sponsorship but the house cut of a pari-mutuel pot. The money's not in a broad fan base but in a core group of habitual gamblers. The handle rules.

To feed it, the Spanish partido format, which pits two players against each other in a contest to 30 or 35 points, was changed after its American arrival in the early 1900s to an eight-post, round-robin format that permits a greater number of bets and some baroque variations on the traditional win/place/show in the '60s. During the late '80s and early '90s, warm-ups were cut; off-season was eliminated in 1988. As many as 14 games were crammed into a single performance, with performances six days a week.

Sixteen frontons operated across the country. Opening nights in Miami, the largest, drew 14,000 people.

The business model was successful through the mid-1980s. Then the sport took a number of body blows: the 1988 players' strike, the spread of cable television and gambling cruises to nowhere, the introduction of the Florida Lottery and passage of the federal Indian Regulatory Gaming Act, which gave rise to two Indian casinos in South Florida that sucked people and money from the country's last two year-round frontons. Attendance and revenues have fallen steadily over the last decade, barely propped up by off-track betting and card room receipts.

A RAY OF HOPE

But what gambling took away, it may yet return: slot machines are coming in the first quarter of 2010, which means more money, probably a lot of it. A Las Vegas corporation has already bought the Dania Beach fronton and others are said to be nosing around Miami's. Fans hope some of the new money will go toward advertising the sport and upgrading the facilities.

Some words on the best jai-alai player in the world: He earned around $90,000 in guaranteed salary and performance bonuses last year, drives a Volvo and lives in a subdivision outside of Miami. It's an un-gargantuan, un-flash, un-super-lux townhouse shared with his girlfriend and his older brother, Luis, another jai-alai player. The living room contains a television, a couch set and the amplifier for Goiko's electric guitar; the dining room has no furniture.

Goiko is aware that his standard of living, while comfortable, isn't in the same universe as that afforded to stars of other sports. ''There's nothing I can do,'' he said one morning, sitting on his couch. "The sport is almost gone. The sport is not well.''

The brothers don't talk much about jai-alai. The sport doesn't particularly interest Goiko when he's not playing.

Goiko's one of the only players in the world who finishes in the money more than out. He never practices, has never been injured, and has already been conferred bobble-head immortality. Luis is good, but he loses more than he wins, and management never paid to manufacture a line of dolls in his likeness. ''He has confidence always, everyday always,'' he said one night in the locker room before the games. "Not like me.''

In the early afternoon, Goiko gets a burger at Fuddruckers and heads over to the fronton, where he plays for about three hours, six days a week, double performances every Saturday. He does this eight months of the year and plays tournaments in Spain for the remaining four. He'd rather be surfing, which is what he does most summers between tournaments. But he's not good enough to surf professionally and jai-alai's what he has done since a scout spotted him at 16 on an amateur court in his hometown of Zumaya, Spain.

His mother painted, his father fished, and without jai-alai he might be fishing too. ''I went to school and my marks were everything bad,'' Goiko said. 'My father told me, 'You want to play jai-alai or fish nets?' I don't want to fish.''

So he rode the same jai-alai pipeline that has carried thousands of Basque boys from Spain to Florida since the 1930s, when pari-mutuel betting was legalized in the state. His path was Milan, Rhode Island, Orlando and finally Miami in 2002.

''Usually, at 22, they are not so strong as he was,'' said Michelena, the former star who's now player manager at Miami. "And from the beginning, he has been fast.''

HIS STRENGTHS

His size let him cover great swaths of court with just a few steps and a lunge. His mechanics were raw but he was strong enough they didn't have to be perfect. He simply out-muscled opponents.

Add to this a couple of tactical innovations: he held the ball longer than usual, giving him time to size up the court before throwing; and he ran around his backhand, a Nadal-esque move that played to his great strength, the forehand.

A jai-alai forehand, less mechanically sweet than the backhand, begins with the hips and torso twisted clockwise and the wrist laid back. As the body uncoils, the elbow functions as a pivot; forearm, wrist and basket snap forward, and the movement ends with the right leg splayed out like a pitcher's on follow-through.

It requires more strength than the backhand but allows for better disguise and shot selection. Setup for an outside cortada -- a hard sidearm shot that hits the front wall low and cuts to the sidewall -- doesn't look different from a dejada drop shot, until it's too late to do anything about it.

The back-court star Benny Bueno, who played at Miami until his knee gave out in 2007, talked about Goiko's madurando el tanto, ripening the point: "His forehand is so good that he doesn't have to win the point on the first throw. He can throw a couple back to back until he really has you dead and then kill the point. He's on offense and you're on defense the whole time.''

BACK IN THE MOMENT

But not at this very moment, when he's scrambling to get back in the point, very much on defense, possibly as amazed as everybody else that his ball actually hit the wall.

Jabi's all over this weak feathered thing and the crowd, seeing an upset imminent, hoots. He throws sharp wide to kill the point. This is a gimme putt, an open lay-up, the overhead a foot from the net: except Goiko, who sees all and apparently knows all, as if he's playing this game at all times a few seconds in the future, is already loping over to the side netting, very fast but not at all rushed, before Jabi even releases. He makes the catch. He fakes wider still with his forehand, sees Jabi bite and wrongfoots him, putting the ball away into the deep corner.

Now is the time to cheer, because something miraculous has just happened. But American jai-alai, a few years into its second century, has its own traditions and they don't involve much cheering.

Fifty people are sitting in the dark in a fronton built for more than 4,000. A few of them clap. Then there's just mutter, because in certain regards American jai-alai is just like the dogs and horses, and everybody's hustling to the betting windows to put their money down before post time.

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