Dan Martin has said he may have been able to catch the front group on yesterday’s stage 18 at the Tour de France, but for Sepp Kuss driving them along at the time.
Ireland’s Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) was initially with the front group until the pace was ramped up inside the final 4km to the finish line atop Luz Ardiden.
The group split, with Martin caught in the second half. Up ahead, the leaders consisted of Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates), Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Enric Mas (Movistar) and Kuss (Jumbo Visma).
With 1.7km to go, Martin jumped from the second group on the road and went in pursuit of the leaders. However, Kuss continued to ride hard on the front of the lead group until 1km to go, which Martin said made it much harder for him to close the gap.
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In the end Martin finished 5th, some 24 seconds behind Pogačar, who won the stage from Vingegaard, Carapaz and Mas.
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“I’m glad that I got to show the real me on the final day in the mountains. I wasn’t really sure how my legs would be after not feeling great the last couple of days, so I decided just to sit back and get as much draft as possible as the final climb was really fast,” said Martin.
“That way I could also see how the other guys were doing, if they were fading or looking good or not. Every time somebody would let the wheel go a little bit, I just jumped over them.
“I was actually a bit a surprised of how it went and as we got closer to the finish, I started to think that maybe I could go for the stage.
“When the group split, I was staying with (Ben) O’Connor and (Wilco) Kelderman for a bit as they were pacing for their GC spots. At one point, I felt that they started to tire so I jumped away from them and tried to close the gap to the front group.
“Without the hard tempo from Sepp Kuss maybe I would have had a chance to come back. Regardless, it was really nice to feel like myself again on the climbs today and show my true colors for one of the first times in this race.”
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