Dan Martin has finished the season very close to a career best spot in the WorldTour rankings despite his Giro crash taking a wrecking ball to his season.
By Brian Canty
Dan Martin has finished second overall at the Tour of Beijing following the conclusion of today’s fifth and final stage.
That ride, combined with his win in the final monument of the season in the shape of the Tour of Lombardy the weekend before last, means Martin finishes 9th overall in the WorldTour rankings.
He was 20th in those standings before the Tour of Beijing started last week, with his overall runner-up slot and stage win in China bringing him into the top 10.
Martin's best finish in the WorldTour was his 6th place of last year.
His 9th overall this season is truly remarkable given his crash on the Giro d'Italia that took him out on the opening stage and saw him sidelined from WorldTour competition until the Vuelta began nearly three months later.
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Martin started the final stage of the Tour of Beijing today three seconds down on general classification.
The Garmin-Sharp rider needed to win the stage and pick up the 10 second time bonus on the finish line and also hope overnight race leader Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team) would fall outside the top three.
But that was never likely to happen on a flat final stage made for a bunch finish for the sprinters.
The finish was very tight today; Modolo, closest to the camera, just about took victory from Gregory Henderson of Lotto-Belisol, with a very fast finishing Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky nearly getting past them both.
Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) won the gallop in front of the Bird’s Nest Plaza in the country’s capital after 117 kilometres; Martin crossing the line safely in the bunch in 59th, thus consolidating his position as runner-up for the second year running.
Last year the Irishman was only beaten by Movistar’s Benoit Inxtausti with Davide Lopez of Team Sky rounding out the podium, while this year it was Colombian climber Esteban Chaves of Orica GreenEDGE taking third overall.
The only other Irishman in the race, Philip Deignan (Team Sky) rode very well in the service of Lopez again but the Spaniard was off his best form and did not make an impact on the head of the leader board.
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Donegal man Deignan crossed the line in 73rd place today on the same time as the winner. He could be seen on the front of the peloton in the closing stages putting in a massive effort to close down a late breakaway on behalf of team mates Ben Swift and Edvald Boasson Hagen, who finished 8th and 3rd on the day respectively.
Deignan ended the race in 18th place overall and was perhaps the man Team Sky should have appointed team leader for this race. Its protected GC man Lopez only managed 12th overall despite benefitting from the work of Deignan and the others.
Dan Martin just about to pounce for the win on yesterday's summit finish; it was a great ride but he needed just four more seconds to take the race lead ahead of today's final stage.
Today’s breakaway saw two riders - Tosh Van Der Sande (Lotto-Belisol) and Laurent Mangel (FDJ.fr) - pull out a lead of around three minutes at the halfway point.
But the attack that was of most concern to the peloton, or the general classification men at least, was the surge by Omega Pharma QuickStep rider Pieter Serry who began the day just 26 seconds down overall.
Serry, who started the day 10th overall, made a gallant effort to bridge to the two leaders. But he was quickly reabsorbed by a fast-moving peloton who had the gap to the leaders down to just over two minutes with 25kilometres to go.
Garmin-Sharp and Giant Shimano did much of the chasing to bring the leaders back, hoping to set up either Tyler Farrar or Luka Mezgec respectively, as whoever finished higher on the stage would walk away with the green points jersey.
And while Modolo took the stage victory, stage 3 winner Farrar finished 4th some two places ahead of Mezgec which was enough to give the American points classification victory.
Stage 5: Tianenmen Square to Bird’s Nest Plaza (117km)
1 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre-Merida 2:40:10
2 Gregory Henderson (NZl) Lotto-Belisol
3 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Team Sky
4 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Sharp
5 Moreno Hofland (Ned) Belkin
6 Luka Mezgec (Slo) Giant-Shimano
7 Davide Appollonio (Ita) Ag2r-La Mondiale
8 Ben Swift (GBr) Team Sky
9 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
10 Enrique Sanz (Spa) Movistar Team
59 Dan Martin (Irl) Garmin-Sharp
73 Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky
Final General Classification
1 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC Racing Team 17:59:56
2 Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin-Sharp @3secs
3 Johan Esteban Rubes Chavio (Col) Orica-GreenEdge @9
4 Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Por) Lampre-Merida @11
5 Sergey Chetnetski (Rus) Katusha @23
6 Warren Barguil (Fra) Giant-Shimano
7 Julian Arredondo (Col) Trek Factory Racing
8 Rinaldo Nocentini (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale
9 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Omega Pharma-QuickStep
10 Mikael Cherel (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale @26
18 Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky @54
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