Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) bounced back from his difficulties of yesterday to claim second place on today’s stage of the Tour de France. The Irishman made a tremendous effort on the last climb to try and catch Rafal Majka but the Tinkoff-Saxo rider was able to hold on for the win.
Early on in the stage from Pau Cauterets to Vallée de Saint-Sevin, a 22-man break went clear, but this was brought back by the peloton. A new break formed containing Majka, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Serge Pauwels (MTN-Qhubeka), Steve Morabito and Arnaud Démare (FDJ), Julien Simon (Cofidis) and Emmanual Buchmann (Bora-Argon 18).
Dan Martin then bridged across alone to the lead group three kilometres from the summit of the Col d’Aspin after closing a gap of nearly four minutes from the peloton to the lead group. The Irishman was then first to the summit ahead of Voeckler, giving him maximum points for the King of the Mountains competition.
On the next climb, the Col du Tourmalet, Majka went clear alone, 7 kilometres from the top. Going over the summit, he led Pauwels by 1’45”, Buchmann by 2’00” and Martin by 2’05”. On the final climb, Martin caught Pauwels to move into second place. However, he was unable to catch the Polish rider.
His efforts from today have pushed Martin into sixth place in the Best Climber competition. He has 27 points while Chris Froome (Team Sky) still leads with 57 points. It will be interesting to see over the coming days if this now becomes the focus of the Irishman.
Sound man Dan!
Super ride
Dan the man
So much for RTE calling him a “journeyman” well done Dan !
Absolutely savage climbing, the win is just around the corner !