Dan Martin’s climb up the general classification at the Tour de France continued today as the UAE Team Emirates rider finished sixth on the stage to move into tenth position overall.

Today’s 108.5-kilometre stage from Albertville to La Rosière Espace San Bernardo included four catgeorised climbs including the summit finish. The stage was won by Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) who overtook breakaway rider Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton SCOTT) in the last few hundred meters to claim a dramatic win and also take over the yellow jersey. His team-mate and defending champion Chris Froome moves into second overall.

With 4km to go, Martin surged clear and was only joined by Froome. The reigning Tour de France champion later distanced Martin but still hung on for sixth and jumped from 17th to 10th position overall, 3’16 behind Thomas.

Commenting on his Stage 11 finish on the UAE Team Emirates website, Dan Martin said: “It was a really good opportunity. I was coming up fast from behind so I thought I’d give it a go. I knew that on that last 4km everyone would be looking at each other and not really riding and if I was able to get a gap I’d have a good chance of pulling some time back. So all in all I’m really happy with it. I was pretty tired at the end, but considering how I’ve been feeling, I think today was a really good operation.

He continued: “After the crash I hadn’t really been thinking about the GC, I’ve just been doing my best every day and we’ll just have to wait and see the results at the end of the Tour. Any day a rider can have a bad day and lose time. If I hadn’t crashed I’d be in a really nice position today, maybe fourth!. Overall, I’m loving the mountains. The last two days have been great. This is the race you think about all year – these mountains and these crowds there’s just no feeling like it.”

Tomorrow’s Stage 12 will be final stage in the Alps. Setting off from Bourg-Saint-Maurice Les Arcs, the peloton will tackle the Col de Madeleine, Lacets de Montvernier and Col de la Croix de Fer before the summit finish to Alpe d’Huez.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here