Dan Martin was cut to pieces and upset after losing time due to a crash at the Tour de France. He said it was "weird" that the team cars were pulled out so a long cavalcade couldn't help him to get back on (Photo: UAE Team Emirates - @PhotoFizza)
Dan Martin has expressed his frustration that the team cars were taken out of the space between the peloton and his chasing group on stage 8 of the Tour France.
The decision by the commissaires undermined his efforts to chase back on after his crash late in the day.
“The guys did a good job,” Dan Martin said of his team mates who waited for him and chased hard.
“I just don't understand why the team cars have to be taken out and barraging us; preventing us getting back to the peloton. It seems weird.”
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Cars are sometimes withdrawn at crucial times in races to ensure the race result is not significantly influenced by a rider benefitting from team vehicles in the cavalcade.
However, it is also traditional in cycling for the cavalcade to be used by riders coming back after a crash or mechanical.
And at times blatant prolonged drafting on the back of cars is tacitly accepted as part of the sport.
Martin crashed and looked in a lot of pain with about 12km to go. Eventually he lost 1:16.
Top down: Martin finishes yesterday and later exits the X-ray mobile unit, with bandage down left arm. And just 48 hours earlier celebrating one of his best ever wins atop Mûr-de-Bretagne.
As a result of his crash-related time loss, he dropped 10 places to 31st overall. Moreover, he is now 2:47 down on yellow jersey Greg Van Avermaet.
And he is now between 30 seconds and two minutes off the other general classification contenders. The gaps he must make up are not insurmountable, especially for a top 10 placing.
But yesterday’s was a significant loss. As significantly, he is also cut up just before stage 9 on the pave into Roubaix.
With 6km remaining, Martin and his team had the gap to the peloton right down to just 35 seconds, after it had been two minutes initially.
However, just as they were getting closer, several trains were at the front cranking up the speed.
Team Sky, FDJ Groupama. Bora-hansgrohe, Dimension Data and Lotto Soudal were all making their presence felt.
But at the back, only a small number of vehicles were allowed in the gap between the peloton and Martin’s group.
It meant the usual advantage of using the cars to aid a chase back on was denied to Martin.
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Thanks a lot to my @TeamUAEAbuDhabi for giving it everything to limit the losses today. Took me a while to pedal circles again and to add insult to injury, the commisaire made a barrage and pulled the cars out but we never give up. Tomorrow another fight
— Dan Martin (@DanMartin86) July 14, 2018
Feels like a lion has been clawing at my back but seems I am ok. Makes tomorrow’s stage even tougher but when have I ever walked away from a challenge.
— Dan Martin (@DanMartin86) July 14, 2018
.@danmartin86 and his #UAETeamEmirates teammate try to recover from his crash on Stage 8 of #TdF2018. ? by @bettiniphoto pic.twitter.com/OFnPasyuys
— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamUAEAbuDhabi) July 14, 2018
And though the Irish rider and those he was with got very close to the back of the much smaller cavalcade, they couldn’t make contact.
As a result, when the real speed was applied as the peloton readied for the bunch sprint, the gap shot out again.
Asked what the damage was Dan Martin said: “I’m just ripped to pieces, you know.
“I landed straight on my back. I thought there might have been a fracture in there but it seems not.
“I’ve got to try and ride tomorrow now and get over those cobblestones, but it’s going to be sore. My back is a bit of a mess.
"I think you always know it's bad when the doctors take off the bandages and went 'Ohhh!'. When a doctor says that, it’s like; ‘eh OK’.
“But it could have been a lot worse. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was one of the first to crash.
“There was a bit of a brake in front of me and some guy just turned right and took my wheel away.
“These moments in the peloton; who knows what’s causing the crashes? The Tour de France seems to get away with it by saying: ‘It's the Tour’.
“But it's strange that there are bit crashes like this in any other race,” he said, adding he was now in pain.
“I was in the shower and it hurts. It was also the shock afterwards,” he said in referenced to a bandaged up left arm and the soft tissue injuries to his back.
“This race has been incredibly nervous this year and especially with so many people standing along the road.
“The guys ride millimetres away from them to try and move up. I thought everybody had realised that crashing hurts but I guess not.
UAE Team Emirates doctor Antonio Angelucci confirmed scans in the mobile X-ray unit at the stage end confirmed there were no fractures.
On stage 9 last year Dan Martin crashed and continued in the race. Furthermore, he would place 6th overall, his best Tour result.
But after the Tour had concluded it emerged Martin had in fact fractured vertebrae but didn’t realise it at the time.
His team has said there are no such issues this time around, despite Martin landing on his back again.
“X-rays reported no fractures for Martin,” Dr Angelucci said. “He suffered in the crash a lumbar trauma and superficial wounds and grazes on the lumbar zone, on left elbow and on the back.”
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