Dan Martin has gone very close to his second classic win, being beaten by just one man up the Mur de Huy ramp for victory at Flèche Wallonne.
Ireland’s Dan Martin has put in his best ride of the season to date, and indeed one of the strongest of his career, taking 2nd place in the 199km Flèche Wallonne classic in Belgium this afternoon.
Martin started quite far back up the finishing Mur de Huy ramp to the line, though passed all of the riders in a small group of around 15 men that was pulled clear on the climb under the pressure applied by Polish champion Michael Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma Quickstep).
However, just as Martin very briefly hit the front, Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde pounced from the group with around 150 metres to go, opened a gap on Martin with a really powerful surge and took the victory with the Irishman a clear second place just behind.
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Garmin-Sharp’s Nathan Hass had tried to bring team mate Martin up to the very front approaching the finishing climb with 1.5km remaining, though the Irishman appeared to lose his wheel.
As the climbing started in earnest with just over 1km remaining, Martin looked around 20th in the group that arrived at the foot of the famed finishing climb intact.
But the moment the road went up, he moved up just inside the top 10 or so and was definitely in clear contention for the win.
With a maximum gradient of 26 per cent, the action was slow motion up the Mur de Huy, with Martin around 10th to 15th with just 500metres remaining.
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In the end though, he came around the outside of the group that had nudged clear and passed all the riders, hitting the front briefly in the very closing stages and only being bested by winner Valverde.
The Spaniard, now 33-years-old and a winner of this race back in 2006, looks to be back to his very best after having returned to racing in 2012 following a two-year doping ban; his age and time away from the sport clearly not impeding him.
The in-form Kwiatkowski was third today.
Martin was 4th in this race last year and then the following Sunday went on to win Liège–Bastogne–Liège in great style. His ride today augers well for his attempted defence of that title this Sunday.
However, while this week in the Ardennes was always going to be a key goal for the Irishman given the parcours in both today's and Sunday's race suit him so well, his whole early season has been about building towards a top ride in the Giro d'Italia which starts in Belfast on May 9th.
He told stickybottle at the weekend that he felt mentally and physically strong and was hoping for big things in the Giro.
Result: Flèche Wallonne (199km)
1 Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)
2 Daniel Martin (Garmin Sharp)
3 Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma - Quickstep)
4 Bauke Mollema (Belkin)
5 Tom Jelte Slagter (Garmin Sharp)
6 Jelle Vanendert (Lotto Belisol)
7 Michael Albasini (Orica Greenedge)
8 Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo)
9 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Katusha)
10 Philippe Gilbert (BMC)
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