Shattered: Roche & Martin embrace at today’s finish in Bagnères-de-Luchon – a fantastic show of character and class by the both
By Graham Healy
Irish duo Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche both had arguably their best stage of the Tour de France today, with Martin finishing 7th on the stage and Roche moving up on GC to 11th.
Martin had said beforehand that he was back feeling healthy again and the route would suit him as he had taken the yellow jersey in a similar stage of the Route du Sud in 2008.
The riders faced 197 kilometres through the Pyrenees and would have to negotiate two hors category climbs and two first category ascents.
Martin was part of the early 38-man break that forged clear after just 25 kilometres.
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The break stayed more or less together on the climb of the Col d’Aubisque. But on the highest climb of the race, the Col du Tourmalet, Martin showed his intent as he blew the break apart.
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He was joined initially by Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank) and Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana). After being caught by four others, Martin again went clear this time being joined by Brice Feillu (Saur-Sojasun) and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar).
Unfortunately, Martin struggled with the pace of the two Frenchmen and dropped back. He tweeted afterwards that Thomas Voeckler had been too strong for him on the Tourmalet, and that he “blew himself to pieces trying to follow him.”
Meanwhile back in the bunch, the Liquigas team increased the tempo on the third climb of the Col d’Aspin, and this saw Cadel Evans start to struggle. He regained the yellow jersey group prior to the final climb of the Peyresourde, but was again dropped along with other GC contenders. Roche hung in longer, and was not far behind Wiggins’ group going over the top.
Thomas Voeckler dropped Feillu to take the stage, whilst Dan Martin showed his fast finish by winning the sprint from his group to take seventh.
Two minutes afterwards, his cousin Roche also won the sprint from his group to finish 14th. This result pushes Roche up to 11th overall, a mere 4 seconds from 10th place. Martin climbs to 46th overall and is now in 6th place in the King of the Mountains competition.
Afterwards, Roche thanked the Irish support on the stage, whilst Garmin’s boss Jonathan Vaughters tweeted about Martin’s efforts saying: “Dan showed his cards a bit early and then blew. He will learn. First Tour.”
Tomorrow’s final Pyrenean stage, whilst not as hard as today’s stage may offer the duo further opportunities to capitalise on their good form.
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