Dan Martin very narrowly misses out on victory in Tour of Lombardy

Ireland’s Dan Martin (Garmin Cervelo) has narrowly missed out on victory in the Tour of Lombardy, finishing second after the unheralded Swiss rider Oliver Zaugg (Leopard Trek) clipped away in the closing kilometres and just held off the Irishman by eight seconds.

Martin shook his head in frustration and disgust as he crossed the line, easily taking the sprint for second from the five-man chase group and left to rue a massive missed opportunity.

Around 40 riders remained in the peloton as the race reached the last 30kms. That group included Martin and Nicolas Roche (Ag2r).

A long lone breakaway by Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) was closed down, leaving the last 20kms poised for some great racing with just the final climb remaining, the top of which was 9km from the finish.

Martin was third in line into the final Villa Vergano climb, with his team mate pulling hard on the front on the very early slopes clearly trying to set up the Irishman.

Sky’s Thomas Löfkvist then took over the pulling for a long period, with Martin sitting menacingly in his wheel.

Löfkvist continued pounding the group forward up the steepest parts of the climb, as riders were being spat out the back under his pressure.

When Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) took over on the front on the climb with 10km to the finish, Martin maintained his second place in the group, just on the wheel of the Italian and looking extremely relaxed and strong.

But it was the little-known Oliver Zaugg of Leopard Trek who attacked first, surprisingly distancing everyone with a very powerful kick, with nobody in the small group willing or able to react.

Behind, Martin counter attacked across the top of the climb, eventually pulling a select group of four with him in pursuit of lone leader Zaugg.

Joining Martin were: Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha), Basso, Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre), Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago-CSF Inox).

With 4km to go the gap was around 15 seconds, increasing to 20 seconds with just over 2km remaining. At that point things did not look good for Martin, who was clearly the strongman of the chasers.

He was doing most of the work in the chase group, urging Basso, Rodriguez and the others to come through harder.

With 1.5km to go the gap was back to 14 seconds and it looked as though Zaugg might be caught.

However, the Swiss rider managed to hang on for an amazing win into Lecco, the biggest (and only) win of his professional career.

Martin easily took the gallop for second just eight seconds later but was clearly disgusted to have let such a big victory slip through his fingers.

On the face of it, it was an amazing result for the Irishman. The fact he was annoyed to have lost simply underlines his winner’s mentality and drive. But ultimately he could have won a classic today and but for a bit of hesitation on the final climb he would have taken it.

Nicolas Roche looked very strong with between 25km and 15km remaining, sitting in the lead cluster of riders in the small lead peloton.