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Dan Martin congratulates Marcel Kittel on another Tour de France stage win. But the Irishman and cousin Nicolas Roche are now looking for success of their own.
Nicolas Roche, Dan Martin at Tour de France
Dan Martin is looking to improve his general classification position and Nicolas Roche is free of team duties at the Tour de France.
It means both are expected to go on the offensive, and possibly as early as today’s stage 12.
There are six climbs in all on the 214.5km road from Pau to Peyragudes and as the day goes on the challenge gets more intense.
There are cat 4 and cat 2 ascents to scale in the first half of the stage, then comes the Col de Menté cat 1 crested at 139.5km.
The general classification battle should really ramp up in the final 50km of the stage.
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The HC Port de Balès is peaked after 184km with, the summits of the Peyresourde and Peyragudes coming at 209.5km and just up the road at the finish line respectively.
For Nicolas Roche, his BMC Racing team leader Richie Porte is gone from the race; a victim of one of the many crashes on Sunday’s stage.
And now the riders that remain must target stage wins in an effort to salvage the team’s race.
Roche will look to get into breakaways in the hope he chooses one that makes it all the way and he can finish the job with a victory.
Today would be a very difficult day to try that given the parcours. But it is also a stage on which an early breakaway might get very significant leeway if it contained no GC threats.
Top, the early escape yesterday of Fredrik Backaert (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Marco Marcato (UAE Team Emirates) and Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe). Bodnar would press on alone and only be caught inside the last few hundred metres. Middle, Kittel takes his fifth stage win yesterday. Bottom, Brits Simon Yates and Chris Froome. They lead the young rider classification and the overall respectively.
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Most of the strong teams will look to hang back to keep reserves for the testing finish. And an escape may get so far ahead it proves uncatchable.
Expect to see Nicolas Roche and his colleagues active early in the day hunting out the breakaways.
Roche is in the best form of the season so far. He has a Grand Tour stage win on his palmares; at the Vuelta in 2014 when he also led the race for a day.
He definitely has class and form to get another one and without Porte to worry about now he also has the opportunity.
Roche is 32nd overall some 29:28 down, but he is now free of worrying about his or anyone else’s GC position.
Martin and Roche have both been anonymous over the past two days; sprinters’ stages won by Marcel Kittel (QuickStep).
It means they should be as mentally rested as is possible at this point in a Grand Tour, and so ready to do battle again.
Dan Martin is currently having a fantastic race; his crash on Sunday the only fly in the ointment.
He was in the select group when he crashed on the damp and slippy descent of the Mont du Chat; coming down when Porte fell in front of him.
He would fall again in the chase back on, he limited his losses to 1:15 on the day.
He’d be 3rd overall now, behind Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Fabio Aru (Astana), but for Sunday’s time loss.
His current 6th place overall is still impressive. And it would be his best ever Tour ride if he could maintain that to Paris.
Given his form over the last 12 days and his consistency this year he will still feel the podium is not beyond him.
He is currently 1:44 off leader Froome but only 52 seconds off Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) in 3rd place. His tactic on a stage like today’s will be the opposite of Roche’s.
Stage finals key for Dan Martin
Instead of looking to get clear early, which his lofty GC position won’t allow, he must wait until the finish and look to drop his rivals on the final section of climbing.
Dan Martin needs to press the issue now. If he wants to get onto the final podium he needs to be aggressive in the finals.
He is nursing a back injury following his crash. Hopefully he can shrug that off and get the best out of himself.
Assuming that is the case, Ireland now has two riders in the race looking to get their own results. They are in great form and have plenty of opportunities to make it happen.
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