Beñat Intxausti (Movistar Team) abandoned Paris-Nice on the fourth stage due to health issues that had prevented him from reaching his level from the Vuelta a Andalucia where he was third behind Chris Froome and Alberto Contador. Now his priority is to recover and get fit for the Tour of the Basque Country.

Shortly before flying back to Bilbao, Intxausti admitted to BiciCiclismo that he was frustrated to leave Paris-Nice. “I arrived with a pretty bad feeling and had doubts about doing this race. I appeared t be feeling better but already on the first day I notived that I was not good in the prologue and every day I failed to recover. In the end it was notpossible," he confirmed. "Symptoms? Congestion, phlegm, headache, I have not had a fever but I have just had a ‘bad body’.”

“We had doubt, even on the Friday before I left. I talked to Eusebio (Unzue, manager) and the doctors. I felt a little better and managed to train. Maybe we rushed things but we decided to go,” he said. "Five days after the race in Andalucía I had a fever and was sick for several days, taking antibiotics, but it did not have much effect. I think it is a virus which usually hits me at this time of the year.”

Intxausti had decided to do Paris-Nice instead of the Volta a Catalunya to capitalize on the good form he showed in Andalusia. Now he prefers to go step by step. "Currently, I have no fixed schedule. The main thing now is to recover, get health and get back into training. Maybe to undergo some medical checks. If all goes well, I will be in the Basque Country and hopefully I'll be fit," she said. In the Basque race, he was second in 2010, fourth in 2011, eighth in 2013 and 48th last year. Then he will focus on preparing the Giro d'Italia, his first big goal of the year and a race in which he won a stage and wore the pink jersey two years ago.