Dan Martin aggressive on first Swiss climbing test; grabs summit finish result, higher overall

Dan Martin on his way to 6th on today's stage of the Tour de Suisse, where he and team mate Ryder Hesjedal were two of the main aggressors of the day.

By Gavin McLoughlin

Ireland’s Dan Martin was in spirited mood on the second stage of the Tour de Suisse today, Sunday; animating the race with multiple attacks before eventually bagging sixth place on the day.

The Garmin-Sharp rider’s aggression served as the launching-pad for a valiant solo effort by his teammate Ryder Hesjedal. But the Canadian was unable to secure stage victory after being caught by ultimate victor Bauke Mollema (Blanco Pro Cycling) with 500 metres remaining.

Saxo-Tinkoff’s Nicolas Roche stayed with the general classification contenders for almost the entirety of the day’s crucial Crans-Montana climb. The Irishman was distanced when the pace exploded in the final 2 kilometres, arriving at the finish-line in 27^th place, 52 seconds behind Mollema.

Roche is seeking to improve his condition for the Tour de France and today's ride was perhaps better than it looks at first glance. On the finishing climb the race split to pieces with massive time gaps emerging. The top 65 riders were covered by five minutes.

There were shades of last month’s Giro d’Italia in Switzerland this morning as today’s stage was reduced by some 40 kilometres due to adverse weather conditions. The hors-categorie Nufenen Pass, due to be tackled in the early part of the day, was blanketed by snow and thus rendered impassable in recent days, sparing the riders the ordeal of scaling it.

Beginning in the town of Ulrichen, the new 132-kilometre course was flat before the road went up to the finish-line atop the first-category Crans-Montana climb.

With the peloton perhaps buoyed by the easing of their load, a breakaway quartet of Enrique Sanz (Movistar), Christophe Riblon (AG2R-La Mondiale), Adrian Saez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Johannes Fröhlinger (Team Argos-Shimano) was allowed up the road in short order.

But their lead never extended beyond three minutes, and the escapees were inevitably swallowed up as the race approached the lower slopes of the 16-kilometre ascent.

It was with 13 kilometres remaining that Martin first thrust himself out of the peloton, but on this occasion the Irishman’s effort was quickly thwarted by the chasing bunch.

Just 1 kilometre later, Martin danced away again, and this time the move stuck as the Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner powered forward, bobbing his head and dipping his shoulders with each turn of the pedals.

But just as visions of an Irish triumph began to form, Hesjedal attacked the bunch and rode across to his teammate, dragging Tanel Kangert (Astana), Brice Feillu (Sojasun) and Jesus Herrada (Movistar) along for company.

As the severity of the slope increased with 9 kilometres remaining, Martin was unable to follow Hesjedal’s pace and the Canadian pushed on with Kangert now his sole companion. Forced through illness to abandon his defence of the Giro d’Italia, Hesjedal sought succour in the form of stage victory and was able to distance the Estonian national champion with another attack 5 kilometres from the finish.

With Hesjedal’s lead hovering around 30 seconds, panic began to spread in a rapidly-thinning peloton. The diminutive climber Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R- La Mondiale) tried to bridge the gap to the leader with approximately three kilometres remaining.

But the Italian quickly found himself with Martin for company; the Irishman gritting his teeth and dragging himself to the front once more in an attempt to play the role of watchdog and ward off any danger to his teammate.

It seemed Hesjedal had victory sewn up, but a shrewdly-timed effort saw Mollema distance Martin and the rest of his rivals. With 500 metres remaining, the grimacing Dutchman managed to catch and pass the Canadian to take stage honours.

A near miss, then, for Martin’s Garmin-Sharp team, but the Irishman will be heartened by his place in the general classification standings.

Despite a poor time trial yesterday, his result today means he will begin tomorrow’s 203 kilometre stage in 12^th place, 42 seconds behind race leader Cameron Meyer (Orica-Green Edge). Nicolas Roche is in 25^th, a further 30 seconds back.

@gavmcloughlin