Nicolas Roche in action on the road to Saint-Étienne today on stage 4 of Paris-Nice. Both he and Dan Martin face into the hardest section, starting tomorrow.
Dan Martin’s general classification aspirations were dealt a blow in the Paris-Nice TT stage 4 today.
The Irishman, riding for UAE Team Emirates, actually nudged one place higher in the standings; and is now in 22nd.
But that is little comfort to him as he lost 1:21 over the 18.4km course to Saint-Étienne.
Nicolas Roche (BMC Racing) was further down the field than expected; in 62nd place at 2:10.
However, have lost time on stage 1 riding flat out today was never likely for Roche.
Wout Poels (Team Sky) won the day from 11 seconds from Marc Soler (Movistar). Julian Alaphilippe (QuickStep) was 3rd, another 5 seconds back.
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Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) wore the yellow jersey in today’s test after making the winning escape yesterday.
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He was 7th today and relinquished 28 seconds to the winner. That means he keeps the race lead; by 15 seconds over Poels.
And completing a very strong top three overall is Alaphilippe, some 26 seconds down and equal on time with Soler.
Dan Martin is now in 22nd at 1:36. It’s a not insurmountable margin with four stages to come.
But he has given himself a lot of work to do to repeat his podium finish of last year.
Martin lost just over one minute in last year’s test. But after he was 5th overall at 1:20; the gaps in the top 10 much larger at this point 12 months ago.
Nicolas Roche is in 53rd at 4:01, though he may now get a chance to ride for himself with team leader Tejay van Garderen out.
The first real climbing takes place tomorrow. The riders race 165km from Salon-de-Provence to Sisteron.
There are cat 2 and cat 1 climbs in the opening 80km. Some 20km later the riders face the cat 3 Col du Negron.
There is another cat 3 ascent – Cote de la Marquise - just 13km from the finish.
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