Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) was hit by some bad luck at Flèche Wallonne (1. UWT) yesterday when he was caught behind a crash on the penultimate ascent of the Mur de Huy. However, he didn’t actually crash himself and said afterwards that he is in top condition for Sunday’s Liège – Bastogne – Liège.

The Irishman, who has finished on the podium three times at the Belgian classic, ended up in a small chasing group alongside the likes of Wout Poels (Team Sky) and Steven Kruiswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) thirty seconds down on the diminished peloton after the Mur.

Despite a valiant chase, and helped by his UAE Team Emirates team-mate Alexandr Riabushenko, they were unable to get back to the peloton. The race was subsequently won by Martin’s former team-mate Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step Floors) ahead of five-time winner Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) and Jelle Vanendert ( Lotto-Soudal). Martin finished in 61st place, over nine minutes down.

“Proud of my @TeamUAEAbuDhabi for taking on the race today,” Martin tweeted afterwards. “Again bad luck cost us the result we deserve as I got held up by a crash penultimate time on the muur. Didn’t crash so not all bad and in top condition to try again on Sunday. Lady Luck will shine on us soon.”

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