Dan Martin’s Tour
de France challenge fell apart on the Col du Tourmalet today in a way it has
never done since he has become a serious general classification contender.
For the last three years he has finished in the top 10 into Paris. And he has started those races, perhaps not as a favourite for yellow but always listed as a possible for the final podium.
Through his career
the Irishman has been great value; not just winning stages on the Tour and
Vuelta but winning on big days and with panache.
He swept to victory on stage 9 of the 2011 Vuelta at La Covatilla ahead of a doped Juan José Cobo (Geox-TMC Transformers) as well as the Team Sky duo of Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome.
Two years later he danced, chased by a panda, to an epic victory in the world’s hardest one-day race, Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
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He followed that up three months later with another Tour stage win; stage 9 again and this time into Bagnéres de Bigorre.
In 2014 he won the Tour of Lombardy and last year he put
in the best 1km attack on a climb you’ll see to win at the Tour again atop Mur
de Bretagne.
There have been other wins of course; overall victory in
the Tour of Poland, fighting all the way for that one back in 2010 aged just 22
years.
He also won Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, and the queen stage of that race, back in 2013 and the Route du Sud as a 20-year-old back in 2008.
His career is not over, of course. Aged 32 years now he
still has a number of seasons left at the top and without question more big
wins lay ahead.
Indeed, he can still aim for glory on this Tour in the shape of a stage victory. But today, combined with yesterday’s TT ride, feels significant in the world class career of Dan Martin.
Whether his poor TT into Pau and what can only be called
an implosion on the Col du Tourmalet mark the end of his time as a general
classification contender at Grand Tours remains to be seen.
What we know for certain is that almost immediately the
road kicked up on the Tourmalet today he looked labored.
And just a little further on he was slipping off the back; the gap between himself and stage winner Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) reaching 5:35 by the finish line.
Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb) was 86th today at 20:19,
though he is not riding for the overall.
Dan Martin is now 16th overall at 9:50 and his general classification challenge is well and truly over.
Getting into a breakaway may rescue his position in the standings, but his tag as one of the general classification favourites is gone; at least for this year.
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Whether he is coming down with a stomach bug that has hit the Tour peloton is unclear at this point.
Though his being distanced so early on the final climb is so uncharacteristic for him that it would come as no surprise if it emerges there is a firm reason for his collapse.
Up front today Pinot attacked the select group deep into
the final kilometre to win one of the Tour’s most iconic stages.
The home favourite came in six seconds ahead of the Tour revelation, and still race leader, Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) who was just ahead of Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma).
Then came a gap of another two seconds to Emanuel
Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) and Egan Bernal (Team Ineos).
Mikel Landa (Movistar) was 6th, some 14 seconds down on
the winner, and Rigoberto Urán (EF Education First) was 7th some 30 seconds
back.
And then came the defending champion; Geraint Thomas of
Team Ineos in 8th place and 36 seconds down on Pinot.
In truth, the time Thomas gave away does not do justice to how badly he cracked in the final kilometre.
Had Pinot taken it up and attacked slightly earlier, the
gap between him and everyone else would have been much bigger.
He was, by some very significant margin, the only rider in the front group who had an extra gear to reach for to put in a kick for the finish line.
And though he lost 1:40 in the crosswinds of stage 10,
his climbing today will give him hope that he can still win this Tour.
He is now 6th overall some 3:12 behind Alaphilippe.
However, though the young Frenchman has ridden out of his skin, one senses he
is still due for a collapse in coming days.
If that is the case and Thomas can regroup – and both
seem likely – the Welsh rider would go into yellow as he is still 2nd overall
now at 2:02.
If Alaphilippe finally runs out of the steam, and Pinot now goes for broke; the gap between Pinot in 6th and Thomas in 2nd place is a very manageable 1:10.
However, Alaphilippe has done almost everything better
than the other general classification men so far and the past two days have
seen him surpass all expectations.
The question for Irish fans, and for the rider himself, is whether Dan Martin can still reach into his resources and pull a stage victory out of the bag. His glittering palmares says he can.
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