Loitering with intent: Martin lost time but that fact aids his stage win goals
Ireland’s two riders in the Tour de France have enjoyed mixed fortunes on stage six into Metz today, Friday, when a crash in the bunch with 20km remaining wiped out or held up well over half the field.
A very significant number of riders never got back on terms, with the general classification having been significantly rearranged as a result.
There was good news for Nicolas Roche (Ag2r La Mondiale), who finished in the lead group in 20th place and now moves up to 15th overall.
More importantly, on a day when many GC hopefuls surrendered big time gaps that will force them to re-evaluate their goals for the race, Roche got to the finish in one piece with his hopes of a big overall ride also in tact.
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It appears he was held up today by the main crash – one of three big ones - but that he got back on. We’ll confirm that later.
For Tour debutant Dan Martin (Garmin-SHARP), the stage was not so kind. His team leader and winner of the 2012 Giro d’Italia, Ryder Hesjedal was one of the victims of that crash, with Martin and other team mates either held up with him or waiting to help him.
Martin himself did not fall but waited for Hesjedal.
The group containing the Garmin men, including Martin, limped home some 13mines 24secs after Slovak Peter Sagan took his third stage win from a sprint out of the greatly depleted peloton – which contained just 61 riders from the 190-strong field.
Martin is now 18 minutes and 48 seconds down overall.
However, any time loss will give him more leeway to go on the attack and target stage wins when the race hits the climbs.
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His stated aims coming into the Tour were going for mountain stages and the climbers’ classification.
The fact that his team’s GC man Hesjedal is now firmly out of contention may also relieve Martin a little of his team duties. His team’s other GC hope Tom Danielson abandoned today.
So while Martin would not wish bad luck on those team leaders and would not have wanted to lose time today, he is perhaps in a better position this evening to go after his goals in this year’s race.
At nearly 19 minutes down on GC, he definitely will not be seen as any threat that needs to be chased down if he manages to avoid crashing and get up the road on the hillier stages.
Tomorrow’s stage 7 takes in the first of the Tour’s real climbs this year. With 199km to negotiate on the road from Tomblaine to the finish at the top of the first category La Planche des Belles Filles, both Martin and Roche will get their first inkling in the next 24 hours how their form is holding up with one third of the race now in their legs.
Stage 6: Épernay - Metz 207.5km
1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale 4:37:00
2 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Belisol Team
3 Matthew Harley Goss (Aus) Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team
4 Kenny Robert Van Hummel (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
5 Juan José Haedo (Arg) Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank
6 Greg Henderson (NZl) Lotto Belisol Team
7 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre - ISD
8 Luca Paolini (Ita) Katusha Team
9 Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team
10 Brett Lancaster (Aus) Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team 0:00:04
20 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Ag2r La Mondiale same
176 Dan Martin (Irl) Garmin-Sharp 13.24
General Classification
1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan 29:22:36
2 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:00:07
3 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-QuickStep
4 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:00:10
5 Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team 0:00:13
6 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:17
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:00:18
8 Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:00:19
9 Andreas Klöden (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan
10 Maxime Monfort (Bel) RadioShack-Nissan 0:00:22
15 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Ag2r La Mondiale 0:00:25
143 Dan Martin (Irl) Garmin Sharp 00:18:48
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