Dan Martin has put himself into contention at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana after a strong final climb on the stage 2 finish today.
The Irish rider, who is in his first race with Israel
Start-up Nation, was 4th at the end of the 181km stage from Torrent to Cullera.
There was an intense fight for position going into the
base of the 2km climb to the finish but immediately the road kicked up Dan
Martin was at the front.
He slotted in behind Tao Geoghegan Hart and Gianni Moscon of Team Ineos when they hit the front on the ascent.
And when Moscon attacked just before the last hairpin
deep inside the final kilometre, Martin held his place near the front despite
the pace stringing out the group.
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Once the riders rounded that corner the kick for the line
commenced and three men proved stronger than the others.
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Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) sprinted to victory
atop the climb just ahead of Spanish champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and
Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-McLaren).
Then came a small gap before Dan Martin crossed the line
in 4th place just ahead of Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott) and Ion Izagirre
(Astana).
However, the gap between Teuns in 3rd and Martin in 4th
was not large enough to result in a time difference.
That meant the top nine across the line all finished on
the same time as 21-year-old Pogačar, with gaps then littered down through the
field.
It was a very decent early season result for Martin who has been training more on feel, rather than data and watts, of late.
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