Dan Martin finishes stage 16 some 51 seconds on the group containing all of his Tour de France general classification rivals.
Dan Martin explains how he lost wheel in crosswinds
Having suffered a loss of 51 seconds to his general classification rivals in the crosswinds of the Tour de France Dan Martin has far from given up.
He said the race was “not over”. And while he only had two team mates to help when the race was splitting, he was brutally honest about his own performance.
Not only was he “not feeling great” today, he also believe it was he who let the wheel go in the line; a slip that cost him his place at the front.
A group of about 25 riders made the front and everyone else lost time.
Martin came home 51 seconds after Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) led in the front group to win.
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Martin’s team mate Marcel Kittel rode very poorly up the first cat 3 climb of the day. He was one minute down at the top.
At 62km per hour, one of Dan Martin's team mates is just off the back of the lead echelon as it forms. But the Irishman said he lost 10 to 15 places at a crucial time. And he believe that, along with not feeling his best today, saw the leading 25 ride away from him.
Though fellow sprinter Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) was with him but managed to get back up to the peloton, Kittel failed to do so.
And because some of the team waited with him, Martin was left isolated when Team Sky hit the front in the crosswinds from 15km to go and split the field to pieces.
In defence of Kittel and the others failing to get back on, Dan Martin several riders in the team had been ill.
But he said he made a few mistakes himself when the race was exploding, and he paid for them.
“I wasn’t in a bad position at the top of the climb,” he said the uncategorised climb before things got intense.
“It was probably me that made the gap in the end,” he said of the wheel being let go that took him out the back.
“I just didn’t have the legs or power in the wind there. It happens, it’s unfortunate. We worked so hard to be in this position but it’s not over.”
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And while he had ridden well in crosswinds on the Tour in the past, he said doing it in the third week was completely different to the first week.
“This was a strange one as well with the climb in the final; the climb put everybody in the red,” he said of today’s stage 16.
“And the downhill was so dangerous... that’s partly what led me to losing a bit of position.
“Just before it split, on the fast downhill there was a couple of very, very near crashes. Guys were getting swept by the wind and coming left into the group.
“I had to slam the brakes a couple of times and that cost me the 10 or 15 positions that were vital in me missing the split.”
He said illness in the team did not help his cause today.
“Philippe (Gilbert) went home and some of the other guys have been sick as well,” Martin explained after the finish.
“Stybar’s been sick and Vermote’s been sick; the team was really struggling today.
“We put on a brave face this morning and hoped it wouldn’t be too bad at the start and they could protect me.
“But in the end obviously I only had Gianluca and Jack; they did an incredible job all day. Jack was killing me in the end there. It was a stressful day. It’s never boring, is it?”
Asked if his time loss meant he would have a bit more freedom to attack, he said only time would tell.
“We’ll see, we’ll see. I said that anything could happen these next four days. It has now and we’ll regroup and see what happens.
“I said that anything could happen this next four days and we’ll have to regroup and see what happens.
“I don’t know what the situation is now. It’s probably over for the yellow jersey, but we’re still fighting.
“I’m not going to race any differently, no. I’ll race with my head.
“It probably does mean I’ll have a little more freedom, but it’s also the last week of the Tour – if I’m in 7th, the guy in 6th is going to chase me down.
“Tactics are always a bit weird in this last week but we’ll see how things go anyway.”
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