Dan Martin looked back to his very best on the opening stage of La Vuelta today, pulling clear on the final climb with the strongest riders and ending the stage in 3rd place.
He attacked the group with just over 4km remaining but was closed down and had the stage finished atop the final climb, rather than dipping down a little just before the line, Martin may have won it.
In the end it was Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) who bounced back from his Tour de France disappointment to win the stage by attacking the group about 1km to the finish.
Just behind him, Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) stalled, apparently in the hope someone else would close down Roglic. And while Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) took up the chase, Roglic held on by one second to win the stage.
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Martin tried to get around Carapaz on the technical downhill final few hundred metres but was unable to and had to settle for 3rd place.
However, it was a fantastic ride by Dan Martin and he looks like a major contender for the overall and for stage wins on this race.
The 173km stage from Irún to Arrate concluded with a brace of climbs, one after the other, with Ineos Grenadiers doing much of the pace-setting in the latter stages.
On the final climb, with 4.5km to go, Sepp Kuss (Jumbo Visma) blew apart what remained of the peloton with a strong attack and soon there were just six riders in the front group.
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That front group was made up of: Kuss, Martin, Carapaz, Roglic, Hugh Cathy (EF Pro Cycling) and Enric Mas (Movistar).
And while that group swelled a little before the finish as the pace knocked off a little, Martin being able to make that front six on the final climb is a very strong indication the Irish rider is among the very strongest on the race.
Roglic, who lost Tour de France yellow on the penultimate stage, now leads overall by five seconds from Carapaz with Martin 3rd at seven seconds.
They are followed by Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott), Felix Großschartner (Bora-hansgrohe) and Mas, all at 11 seconds on a day of big gaps down the field.
The only other Irish rider in the race, Tour de France green jersey Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) finished in a large group some 15:20 down.
Bennett was robbed of an early stage win chance when the opening stages, which were due to take place in Holland, were cancelled due to Covid-19; the race starting instead in the mountains today.
Many big names have already lost
significant time. All dropping 51 seconds to front group were: Alejandro
Valverde (Movistar), Gorka Izagirre (Astana), Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo Visma) and
Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates).
Wout Poels (Bahrain McLaren) was 1:51
down while Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) lost almost 10 minutes, 9:56 to be
precise, and Chris Froome (Ineos Grenadiers) was back in 72nd some 11:12 down.
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