Dan Martin is still in the hunt for a GC win at Catalunya
Dan Martin (Garmin Barracuda) may have looked under pressure on the final climb of the Tour of Catalunya today, Thursday, but he battled well to make it into the front group and jump up a couple of places on GC to keep alive his hopes of outright victory.
After seeing his best chance of assuming race leadership taken from him when the final two mountains of Wednesday’s stage were cut from the shortened snow-hit route, Martin was under pressure today when the road went up. He was unable to pounce in the hills to make up for yesterday’s missed chance.
When Sylvester Szmyd (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) pulled clear of the dwindling peloton on today’s final climb, Martin could be seen near the back of the group engaged in some pretty heavy breathing. And when a small group went after the leading duo and caught them as the riders hurtled down the mountain towards the finish, Martin was still nowhere to be seen.
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However, he was part of the chasing group that caught the breakaway in the last 350 metres, leaving a group of 25 riders to fight it out for the stage win. Team Sky’s Rigoberto Uran was quickest in the charge for the line, taking the win from Denis Menchov (Katusha).
Martin’s successful battle to stay in contention today has moved him up to fourth in the GC standings, 1:31 down on race leader Michael Albasini (GreenEdge). Martin is effectively equal second on time with 15 other riders.
Tomorrow’s stage features a first category ascent crested at around 25kms from the finish, with most of the run in to the finish in Manresa made up of the descent. With relatively flat stages on Saturday and on the concluding day on Sunday, tomorrow looks like Martin’s only chance to dislodge the leader.
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Nicolas Roche (Ag2r) today finished in the second group on the road, some 44 seconds down on Martin’s lead group. He is now 45th overall and is likely to try and get into the breakaway moves in the coming three days.
Stage 4 Result : Tremp - Ascó 199km
1 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Sky Procycling 5:13:12
2 Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team
3 Sylvester Szmyd (Pol) Liquigas-Cannondale
4 David Moncoutie (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne
5 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team
6 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
17 Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin-Barracuda all same time
31 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale @44 secs
General Classification
1 Michael Albasini (Swi) GreenEdge Cycling Team 12:25:24
2 Steve Morabito (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:01:32
3 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team
4 Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin-Barracuda
5 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
6 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Sky Procycling
45 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:04:25
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