Irish rider Dan Martin explains what went wrong yesterday at Paris-Nice. Ryan Mullen shows form ahead of big personal goal at Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy.
Dan Martin has explained that a broken wheel at an inopportune moment derailed his Paris-Nice general classification bid yesterday.
One of the most consistent stage race riders in the pro peloton over the last two seasons, he lost over 9 minutes yesterday.
Twelve months ago he staged an all-out assault on the final day of this race. And it helped him to jump to 3rd overall.
Barring a miracle today and tomorrow there will be no repeat of that this year for Dan Martin.
He broke his front wheel on the descent of the Cote de Gourdon yesterday. With the last climb, Cote de la Colle sur Loup, not far down the road there was no time to recover.
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Hopefully that's our bad luck for the year done with. Broken wheel at precisely the worst moment possible. Game over. Try again tomorrow.
— Dan Martin (@DanMartin86) March 9, 2018
Race leader Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) also hit problems around the same point. But with a team mate to take a bike from he was back in the thinned out peloton very quickly.
"In the downhill towards the Cote de la Colle sur Loup I noticed that I was having troubles with my front wheel,” said Martin.
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“I had to change it but I had no more chances to recover the top riders’ group. I hope tomorrow could be a better day.”
Martin still has two stages to pull something out of the bag. Today, Saturday, is 175km from Nice to Valdeblore La Colmiane. It finishes on a cat 1 summit.
Sunday’s finale is another that Dan Martin will fancy his chances in. It starts and finishes in Nice and is just 110km, featuring six climbs.
Ryan Mullen in Tirreno-Adriatico (2.UWT)
The 23-year-old Irish road and TT champion has been riding well in Italy. He has been on team duties on the opening three stages. Furthermore, he has made his presence felt on the front of the bunch several times.
The best chance for Ryan Mullen will come on Tuesday’s final stage. It is a 10.05km TT over a flat course.
On Wednesday’s opener, his Trek-Segafredo team was 8th in the TTT. It lost 39 seconds to BMC Racing over 21.5km.
On stage 1 Ryan Mullen finished in 98th place. He was 26 seconds down on bunch sprint stage winner Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin).
Mullen was on lead out duties for Giacomo Nizzolo who claimed 3rd on the day.
On yesterday’s stage, with an uphill finish, the racing sprang to life. Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) but in a solo attack close to the finish and held on from the select group.
Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) was 4th on the day and took the leader’s jersey. Mullen was in 130th, some 12:56 down.
However, his mind will be on helping the team as much as he can until he gets his chance in that final test.
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