Dan Martin hasn't had his Giro legs on this Tour de France but the Irish rider has been trying to get himself into a stage-winning position day after day and today he dug especially deep on Luz Ardiden.
With Ineos Grenadiers, UAE Team Emirates and Jumbo Visma all pulling hard on the front on the final climb of stage 18 today, the remains of the peloton were rapidly trimmed down to a select group.
And though Martin remained steadfastly stuck to the back of that group, he was able to survive until the bullets began to be fired by the biggest general classification riders in the race.
Again, it was race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates) doing most of the damage, attacking with just over 3km to go. The exchanges between the best men, and the pressure applied on the front by Sepp Kuss (Jumbo Visma), inside the final 3km saw them pull clear of the rest of the group.
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Pogačar was there in that front group with Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Enric Mas (Movistar). Kuss was with them for a time and he drove the pace on the front before being dropped.
Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) was in the next group on the road, with the other men who had been distanced by the five leaders. And with 1.7km remaining the Irishman attacked the group he was with in a bid to get across to the five leaders.
He dug very deep, putting in the type of effort that suggests he is only now returning to his best after the Giro. As Martin attacked, Kuss was still driving the front group until he was eventually dropped with 1km to go; that work by the American really working against Martin.
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The Irishman's efforts to get up to the leaders were then hit with a set-back when Mas attacked up front. That forced the others to respond, pulling the leaders' group away from the chasing Martin. Pogačar then decisively pulled the trigger to get ahead and win his second stage in as may days.
The yellow jersey took victory by two seconds from Vingegaard and Carapaz, with Mas in 4th place some 13 seconds down. Then came the battling Irishman Martin. He was in 5th place today - his best result of the Tour - some 24 seconds down.
After working for his team leader Vingegaard until the final kilometre, Kuss finished in 6th at 30 seconds. Sergio Higuita (EF Education Nippo) was 7th at 33 seconds and Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën) was 8th at 34 seconds.
The result means Pogačar now has three stage wins on this Tour and leads overall by 5:45 from Vingegaard with only a sprinters' stage tomorrow, a TT on Saturday and the final day into Paris on Sunday.
Carapaz is still in 3rd place overall, some 5:51 down on Pogačar and just six seconds down on Vingegaard. However, Vingegaard should gain time on Carapaz on Saturday's TT. Barring incident, the order of the top three on GC now should not change in the remaining three stages.
While Dan Martin’s apparent return to climbing form comes
too late for this Tour it's perfect timing for the upcoming Olympic Games. An
in-form Martin would be a likely contender for a medal on the hilly road race
course in Tokyo.
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