Martin battles to third on Catalunya GC after crash, Roche abandons

Dan Martin (Garmin Barracuda) has moved up another place on the Volta a Catalunya’s overall standings to third with two stages remaining despite injuring his back in a crash.

Nicolas Roche (Ag2r) abandoned today’s mountainous stage, apparently having failed to recover from the bad bout of flu that saw him confined to his sick bed for a number of days last week.

Martin was today part of a 26-man lead group that arrived together in Manresa after almost five hours of racing and some tough climbs failed to dislodge overnight leader Michael Albasini (Green Edge).

With 14 riders all on the same time 1:32 behind Albasini there was plenty of attacking up the final climb today, a first category ascent some 25kms from the finish.

However, the moves did nothing but cancel each other out, with Albasini happy to follow the wheels and maintain his useful cushion on GC over the others.

Martin looked strong today after struggling a little bit yesterday on the climbs. He had fallen in Wednesday’s snow hit stage and hurt his back but today seemed to have recovered.

Stage 5: Asco - Manresa, 207.1 kilometers

1. Julien Simon Saur - Sojasun 4:58:27
2. Rigoberto Uran Uran Sky Procycling
3. Sylvester Szmyd Liquigas-Cannondale
4. Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez Euskaltel-Euskadi
5. Dario Cataldo Omega Pharma - QuickStep
6. Jurgen Van Den Broeck Lotto Belisol Team
9. Daniel Martin Garmin-Barracuda

DNF Nicolas Roche (Ag2r La Mondiale)