The crosswinds made for some old school racing at the Tour yesterday, with Dan Martin handling himself well until a crash scuppered his day.
Dan Martin made the front group at the Tour de France yesterday before a crash split it in half, leaving 24 riders to sail up the road and gain well over one minute on everybody else.
The Irish rider was with his team mate and Cannondale-Garmin co-leader Andrew Talansky in the large front group of around 50 riders.
It went clear when the pace shot up in the crosswinds with approximately 60km remaining on yesterday’s stage 2 in windswept coastal Zeeland.
However, as the racing was going forward and the field was splitting to pieces, a crash occurred just ahead of Martin and caused a gap to open in the front group.
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In the crosswinds the gap opened quickly and those caught on the wrong side of it, including Martin and Talansky and defending champion Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), found themselves in the second group.
They were then caught by the peloton behind, where the likes of major yellow jersey favourite Nairo Quintana (Movistar) was already stranded when the initial split occurred.
The faller in the front group was French sprinter Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis).
He only barely made the start line of the Tour on Saturday in Utrecht following a bad smash in the French national road race championships last weekend.
As he fell yesterday, the riders in the front group were negotiating road furniture in the middle of the road.
That factor caused no small degree of additional chaos and hesitation and added a couple of lengths to the gaps that opened.
And when daylight opened, it was never closed in the strong crosswinds whipping in from the North Sea as the strong teams drove hard on the front.
Martin before the start yesterday. He was to lose time on the day but the margin is by no means a disaster over such a long race with so many mountains.
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“This stage was especially (intense) because of the weather and high winds,” said Martin’s sport director Charley Wegelius.
“We were set in a really good position with Talansky, Dan and Koren in that first group.”
“Unfortunately, we were involved in the crash in the front group that took out a few of the other favourites,” Wegelius added.
“From that moment, we were on the defensive, and the entire team worked to limit losses.”
Nibali said while he avoided crashing himself, Bouhanni’s fall with around 50km remaining was devastating.
He explained it occurred just as the gaps were really opening after 10km of hard racing from the time the early escape was caught.
“It was a miracle that I didn’t fall myself,” the Italian said afterwards.
“But the group broke up after that crash and we were caught behind; we were chasing all day, that’s it,” he added of the group he found himself in with Ireland’s Martin and about 20 other riders.
The 24-strong group up front stayed intact until the finishing sprint, where 10 riders including Chris Froome of Team Sky, came home on the same time as stage winner André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal).
There were 15 seconds between the victorious German and the last man in the lead group - 24th placed Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx – Quick-Step). It meant those up front gained between 1:28 and 1:13 on the peloton with Martin.
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