Dan Martin looked absolutely shattered, with journalists jumping in to keep his bike upright as he started to wilt. He put in an incredible effort but said the best man won.
Dan Martin recalls being 12 years old watching Tour
Ireland's Dan Martin has said he first saw the Tour de France as a 12-year-old on the roads he raced to 2nd place on today’s stage.
He said he was delighted be back almost 20 years later and racing for the win. And while he was beaten Nairo Quintana (Movistar) Martin said he was still very happy with his performance.
He and Quintana attacked at the base of the Col du Portet. The Colombian went a little faster early in the move and gapped Martin.
The distance between the two remained at about 15 to 20 seconds almost the whole way up.
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20th July 1999 a 12year old me watched @LeTour standing roadside on Val Louron-Azet. Very special to race over those same roads once more and even more so to race for the win. Fair play @NairoQuinCo Simply stronger today. Proud of how I raced. Love the Pyrenees
— Dan Martin (@DanMartin86) July 25, 2018
And while the group of favourites closed the gap – from over a minute at one point – Martin was 2nd behind the very impressive Quintana.
"The last two or three days I've felt really good; that's a really good sign,” he said.
“I kind of planned to go earlier, that's why we put Darwin (Atapuma) and Kristijan (Durasek) in the break.
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"I wanted to go on the Val Louron-Azet. It's OK everybody saying, 'Attack early' and whatever.
“But there was so much wind on those early climbs and you get so much help being on the wheel that it's just not worth it.
“I had good legs, I had confidence in my legs; that I could do a good last climb."
Of moving onto that final ascent up to the finish he said: "I kind of took advantage of Sky setting the tempo at the bottom of the climb. They then eased back a bit.
“I mean, I’m seven minutes down and so I thought ‘maybe they’ll let me go?’
"Nairo came with me. I think he wanted to ride together. But he just went so hard at the bottom that I wanted to settle into my own tempo.
“It turned it into a time trial to the top. That altitude got me at the end; it's pretty high up here. Nairo lives at 2,800m and so probably helps him.
“I was trying to keep him at 10 or 15 seconds. I thought normally over the last 500 metres, I can close that gap.
“But at this altitude I just had nothing left. It was absolutely... really tough. He was the better guy on the day.
“But I’m proud of how the team rode and how I rode as well. It’s pretty special to get 2nd at a mountain top finish like that; especially when it’s a case of the strongest just gets first; you know.
“To be the second strongest at the hardest mountain top finish at the Tour de France is pretty special.”
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