lead. Sánchez finished the race the next day in second place overall. In February, Valverde won the Tour Méditerranéen overall without winning a stage, by virtue of his time gap over previous race leader Jussi Veikkanen on the final day's stage to Mont Faron. Later in the month, Sánchez won the individual time trial which closed out the Volta ao Algarve, finishing that event second overall. Grand Tours Giro d'Italia Caisse d'Epargne was one of 22 teams in the Giro d'Italia. The team was not competitive in the opening to the Giro in the Netherlands. They did not have riders contesting the finishes to either of the first two road race stages, and their best-placed rider in the overall standings before the transfer to Italy was Arroyo in 38th. Several team members were brought down in a big crash, which also claimed then-race leader Cadel Evans among its victims, in stage 3. Bruseghin, an outside favorite for overall success in the Giro, was thus put over eight minutes off the leading pace. The team's fortunes changed little in the stage 4 team time trial. They came in 18th, 2'21" off the pace of stage winners . In stage 6, a two-man breakaway survived to the finish of the stage. A depleted group sprint at the head of the peloton then fought for the remaining placings a minute behind the winner. Kiryienka took eighth in this stage. Stage 7 was one of the major days in the Giro. The course was long and incorporated unpaved roads. The day on which the stage was run happened to have heavy rainfall, making for muddy riding in the unpaved sectors. After then-race leader Vincenzo Nibali sustained a mechanical issue which necessitated a bike change, Arroyo was one of a handful of riders to follow a timely attack from Alexander Vinokourov. Arroyo could not stay with the leaders (Vinokourov, Evans, and Damiano Cunego) but took fifth on the stage 12 seconds back of Evans. The result moved him up 11 places in the overall standings, from 25th to 14th. The Giro's 11th stage was another big one. An enormous breakaway group formed in this stage, near 50 riders at its most populous. Arroyo, Kiryienka, Amador, and Losada all made this selection. With Arroyo in 11th place in the overall standings, the other three worked hard to try to drive the break to its biggest advantage.