Martin keeps climbing rivals closer with strong Tour de France TT

While his general classification bid has sometimes come badly unstuck in time trials, Dan Martin put in a stronger ride at the Tour de France today.

By Brian Canty

Dan Martin has begun his third Tour de France with a battling display against the clock.

And though he ceded 1:17 to stage winner Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing), his losses to the big general classification contenders were much more modest.

The Cannondale-Garmin man was 27 seconds slower than Chris Froome (Team Sky) and 19 seconds slower than Alberto Contador (Tinkoff Saxo).

Nairo Quintana (Movistar) went 16 seconds quicker than the Irishman while defending champion Vincenzo Nibali set a very fast time, going 34 seconds faster.

However, with three weeks of racing ahead and many mountain stages to contend with, Martin will not lose too much sleep over today’s performance, particularly as the conditions were less than favourable to a man of his build.

It was a pan-flat 13.8 kilometre course and with some windy sections to deal with, it always suited the strong men.

Rohan Dennis, a 25-year-old from Australia, was too quick for the rest today and pulled on the Tour de France yellow jersey.

It was no surprise to see some familiar names populating the top of the results sheet.

The aforementioned Dennis caused a bit of a stir when he set the fastest time of the day.

However, he has been in fantastic form this year, broke the world hour record and said before today he had been working towards this stage for many months.

His time of 14:56 was the fastest TT in Tour de France history, and it needed to be too as he took victory by just five seconds from former World TT Champion Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep).

Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) was 3rd, six seconds down with local favourite Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant-Alpecin) 4th a further two seconds back.

Martin was 95th on the stage while his cousin Nicolas Roche was 101st after he stopped the clock at 16:16; 1:20 slower than Dennis.

Serious skill and speed shown here by Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) as he absolutely rails it on a bend during the opening stage of the Tour de France today. The multiple world champion went quick enough for third.

Tour de France debutant Sam Bennett was 171st, some 1:48 down.

However, unlike Martin who has a very good chance of a strong overall placing by the time the race reaches Paris in three weeks; Roche and Bennett and not riding for time.