Dan Martin on the attack during today's stage in Beijing, where his growing reputation saw him heavily marked by the other major teams.
Ireland's Dan Martin has gone agonisingly close to winning a stage of the Tour of Beijing today, Monday, but had to settle for second behind stage winner and new race leader Benoit Intxausti (Movistar).
Martin had been one of the strongest on the stage, including the final ramp up to the finish at Mentougou Miaofeng. But he was heavily marked by the likes of BMC, Liquigas-Cannondale and Team Sky who jumped on his every move.
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It was the 27-year-old Spaniard Intxausti who stole away from a reduced peloton with around five kilometres to go and he quickly pulled out a gap that stretched to 15 seconds.
Martin went in pursuit with around two kilometres remaining and it looked like he would come around Intxausti in the closing metres but it wasn't to be.
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Intxausti finished three seconds ahead of the Irishman and picked up a very handy 10-second time bonus at the summit to claim the race lead.
Overnight leader Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) had been distanced on the lower slopes of the final climb.
Tomorrow's stage is a flat run into the finish in Beijing, and there's unlikely to be any change in the overall standings. Martin said he was "gutted" not to have taken the win today.
"I'm a bit gutted to get so close," he told stickybottle.
"But I always knew it would be difficult today. The climb probably wasn't steep enough for me, it was big chain ring all the way and being so heavily marked by the others came against me. But I guess second isn't bad so I have to be happy."
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