Last big chance for Dan Martin on Catalunya queen stage
Nacer Bouhanni wins yesterday's stage which was made shorter due to snow on the early sections of the route.
Having lost more time than expected in the team time trial on stage 2 of Volta A Catalunya, Dan Martin will be in more comfortable terrain today.
After yesterday’s road stage was shortened by 58km because of snow at altitude on the early section of the course, a summit finishes awaits the field today.
And while Martin is down in 14th place a good ride today, especially if some of the other big names falter, would see him back in the game.
Martin is 2:02 down on race leader Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing), having lost 2:11 to him in the team test. But the Irishman could nudge towards the podium positions if he has a good day.
Advertisement
Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) is 3rd overall at 44 seconds and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) is one place and one further second back.
Other notables ahead of Dan Martin include Chris Froome (Team Sky) at 49 seconds in 5th and Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) in 7th at 1:13.
Martin is 49 seconds down on the Spaniard and if he is to get up the standings he will need to attack on the final climb from a distance or even go in the early breakaway.
The summit finish is at Le Port, an 8.4km hors cat ascent with an average gradient of 9 per cent but reaching 20 per cent in sections, see profile below.
Related News
Dan Martin is just about far enough in arrears to be given some leeway if he decided to attack early on the climb or even before it.
And the fact he was 12th on yesterday’s bunch finish shows he was remaining attentive. He was clearly keen not to get caught on the wrong side of any time splits in the bunch at the finish.
The stage was won by Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) in a sprint from a reduced bunch of 60 riders.
Martin was 2nd on stage 3, see video, below. He was only beaten by Valverde. And if Martin has legs as good today we could see some fireworks.
He will chase a stage win or could even claw his way onto the final podium, though that is a long shot given the time he has lost and the quality of some of those ahead of him.
? 1 hora per a l'inici de la 4ª etapa! Reviu el final de la 3ª etapa, amb victòria d'@alejanvalverde a La Molina pic.twitter.com/0E3vzJRQKo
— Volta a Catalunya (@VoltaCatalunya) March 23, 2017
The penultimate stage tomorrow features three cat 3 ascents and a final cat 1.
However, the biggest and final climb comes with 40km remaining to the finish meaning it is unlikely to shape the stage result on a significant way.
The final stage around Barcelona features eight passages of the same cat 3 climb on the finishing circuit.
Last year on the concluding stage Martin stole a time bonus to leapfrog Richie Porte into 3rd overall behind outright victor Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and runner-up Contador.
Topics
