Dan Martin looking like he'd been in a bike race at the top of the climb after yesterday's Tour de France stage 6.

Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin
had very different stages at the Tour de France yesterday on the sixth
day of racing to the feared La Planche
des Belles Filles climb.

Martin (UAE Team Emirates) dug really deep all the way to
the finish line in a bid to stay with the other general classification men.

Roche (Team Sunweb) opted out of the fight and simply rode
the final climb easy in a big to keep his powder dry for another day.

When his intended team leader Tom Dumoulin was forced out of
the race with injury before it began, Roche said team management gave the
remaining riders very clear orders.

They were not to try and hang in each day in a bid to
possibly finish in the top 15 overall in Paris.

Instead, if they weren’t in the breakaway on particular
stages they should shut up shop and wait for another day.

And that’s exactly what Roche did yesterday; going in the gruppetto
with team mate Wilco Kelderman.

“It was weird because neither of us had been in that position before and it was a strange feeling to not care about losing 10 or 15 minutes on the way to the finish,” Roche said in his Irish Independent Tour Diary.

Nicolas Roche had quite a controlled stage yesterday

Related News

Lara Gillespie attacks Dolomite stage as Giro hits high mountains

Video - Italy's hero Balsamo mobbed mid-stage during Giro TT

Nicolas Roche continued: “When the groups merged into one
big group, myself and Danish rider Michael Valgren from Dimension Data spent
much of the time climbing together and chatting at the front.

“I used a 39x30 gearing for the climb to the summit of
Planche des Belles Filles, which was probably a bit too high for the 24 per
cent gradient near the top.

“Usually at the top of such a hard final climb, I would be
slumped over my bike trying to catch my breath or maybe even lying on the road
exhausted.

“Today though, I crossed the line, put on warm clothes and
turned around for the 10km descent down to the team buses.”

The biggest drama in his day was stopping to aid a fan who
fell on the descent and left some of his flesh and a lot of blood on the tarmac.

For his part, while Dan Martin conceded just over or under
10 seconds to many of his general classification rivals on the extra steep
gravel section just before the finish, he was happy with his stage.

He said there was a long way to go, suggesting the race
would not come down to seconds.

“I feel really good, I lost a bit of time on the dirt
section but I'm not worried,” he said after yesterday’s finish.

“I think this Tour will be about who has the least bad day. And
today was definitely not a bad day for me.”