Philip Deignan fourth in line in today’s breakaway at the Tour of Turkey
Philip Deignan (Unitedhealthcare) and Matt Brammeier (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) both went on the attack today, Friday, in the Tour of Turkey and Tour de Romandie respectively.
At the Tour de Romandie, Brammeier went up the road in a group of five on the 157km third stage. With him in the escape were Gatis Smukulis, Leigh Howard (GreenEDGE), Tosh van der Sande (Lotto-Belisol) and Anders Lund (Saxo Bank).
They built a lead of over six minutes at one point. However, with 15km remaining that gap had dipped under the two-minute mark. Smukulis then attacked in a bid for stage honours and while Brammeier and the others battled hard to bring him back, all of the escapees were caught with just 4km remaining to the finish just after the final climb had started.
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Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) won the group sprint that settled the stage and has now moved to within one second of Bradley Wiggins’ (Sky) yellow jersey with just tomorrow’s mountain stage and Sunday’s time trial remaining.
Brammeier battled hard all day and is clearly coming into some good form. His efforts combined with the tough finish meant he lost 4:49 after he was caught. He took the first climb of the day and was 4th and 5th on the next two, moving him into 9th in the climbers’ classification.
Despite being caught, he will be pleased with his showing today after a frustrating period sidelined with bronchitis in recent weeks.
Ireland’s Dan Martin (Garmin Barracuda) finished safely in the lead group today and remains in 39th position on GC, 23 seconds down. Tomorrow’s queen stage should see him flex his climbing legs.
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In the Presidential Tour of Turkey, Philip Deignan showed some of the form Irish cycling fans really want to see from him, going up the road after around 50kms in a large 16-rider group.
The group contained a number of GC contenders and looked unlikely to get too much leeway. However, when it split Deignan managed to get off the front again in a three-man group that also featured Michael Golas (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) and Maxim Belkov (Katusha).
They built a lead of well over four minutes as the other 13 riders they had left behind were caught by the peloton. However, Golas started the day just 3:02 off the leader’s jersey of Ivaïlo Gabrovski (Konya Torku Seker Spor).
This ensured the peloton did not lose interest in those up front. And while the gap yo-yoed in the last 20kms, the leading trio was finally caught with 8km remaining.
The finishing sprint into Kusadasi was won by Sacha Modolo (Colnago-CSF Inox), who took the scalps of second placed Matt Goss (GreenEdge) and Mark Renshaw (Rabobank) in third.
Deignan lost 29 seconds and is now in 22nd overall, 5:32 down with just two stages remaining. Like Brammeier, he will be disappointed not to have gotten something for his efforts today. But he is certainly looking like he’s coming into good form.
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