Txurruka renews until 2010

By Monika Prell

Euskaltel-Euskadi's promising young Basque rider Amets Txurruka has extended his contract with the squad until 2010. The contract of the 25 year-old 2007 Tour de France most aggressive rider award was due to end this year. Txurruka said he is proud that "the team has confidence in my abilities, and I hope to answer with a great performance. Euskaltel Euskadi is my home team and has a philosophy that makes it very special. Being a part of this project is great and I want to thank Miguel Madariaga and Igor González de Galdeano for their confidence in me."

After suffering a crash in second stage of the Challenge de Mallorca where he broke his collarbone, Txurruka is already back to training. "I am very motivated to come back to competition," he said, "and the extension of my contract motivates me even more."

Miguel Madariaga, the team manager expressed his satisfaction with the extension of Txurruka's contract. "We reached an agreement and extended the cooperation for two more years. The project I initiated with Igor González de Galdeano is growing progressively. The renewal of Txurruka integrates itself in this route."

Madariaga thinks a great deal of Txurruka. "We believe that he is a rider of the present and the future. The fact that he won the combativity ranking of last year's Tour de France shows his quality. We believe that he is a rider who is able make us happy and so we are content to continue the work with him until 2010."