Dan Martin has had an amazing Tour de France and his ninth overall is a career-best. He was aggressive throughout this last few weeks, almost took a stage win and can look forward to the rest of the season with huge confidence.
By Brian Canty
Sam Bennett will become just the 10th Irish rider to finish the Tour de France tomorrow when he rides into Paris for the final stage of this year’s race.
The Bora-Argon 18 man made it through another gruelling afternoon in the mountains today, crossing the line almost 35 minutes down on the stage winner Ion Izagirre (Movistar).
Assuming he finishes, Bennett will take the Lanterne Rouge back home with him after the stage tomorrow– a symbolic award given to the rider sitting last on general classification.
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Still, he’ll have the distinction of riding down the Champs Elysees for the traditional end-point of the race, something reserved for only the elite.
Shay Elliott, Martin Earley, Paul Kimmage, Stephen, Nicolas and Lawrence Roche Roche, Sean Kelly, Mark Scanlon and Dan Martin have all done so in the past and Bennett should join that elite club tomorrow afternoon, barring a disaster.
Sam Bennett's crash on the opening day saw him struggle all the way, but he has made it to Paris and deserves huge credit.
If he’s got anything left in the tank after battling through the last three weeks, he will aim to contest the bunch sprint that will most likely decide the stage.
It would be a fairytale ending for the Carrick man, particularly as he’s had things so rough this Tour but also because of losing his closest ally in the team, Shane Archbold, to a broken pelvis on Wednesday.
For Martin, he’s unlikely to get involved though he’ll be doing what he can to give his teammate Marcel Kittel the best chance of crossing the line first.
It’s been a brilliant Tour for the Irishman and his ninth place overall bests his previous best of 33rd in 2013.
He’s stayed healthy throughout this Tour and save for the first time-trial on stage 13, he was right in the mix on most of the big days.
He almost took a stage win on stage eight into Bagneres de Luchon but had to settle for second behind Froome while he climbed as high as third on GC.
As it stands he is 7:04 down on Froome after today’s 20th stage, a very respectable deficit given how strong the Briton has been.
On today’s stage, Froome rode a textbook race in dreadful conditions, albeit with the help of his team.
With four categorised climbs and plenty long, sweeping descents it was a stage that had ambush written all over it but with the help of his teammates they carefully guided the man in yellow to the finish line in Morzine.
Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) remains second overall following his brilliant stage win yesterday while trailing him by 16 seconds in third is Nairo Quintana (Movistar).
They finished side by side today in the same time as Dan Martin who was ninth over the line for his fourth top 10 of the race.
Stage 20: Megeve – Morzine (146km)
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1 Jon IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, MOVISTAR TEAM, in 4:06:45
2 Jarlinson PANTANO GOMEZ, IAM CYCLING, at :19
3 Vincenzo NIBALI, ASTANA PRO TEAM, at :42
4 Julian ALAPHILIPPE, ETIXX – QUICK STEP, at :49
5 Rui Alberto FARIA DA COSTA, LAMPRE – MERIDA, at 1:43
6 Roman KREUZIGER, TINKOFF, at 1:44
7 Wilco KELDERMAN, TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO, at :49
8 Joaquin RODRIGUEZ OLIVER, TEAM KATUSHA, at 3:24
9 Daniel MARTIN, ETIXX – QUICK STEP, at 4:12
10 Romain BARDET, AG2R LA MONDIALE, at 4:12
169 Sam BENNETT, BORA ARGON 18, at 34:34
General Classification
1 Christopher FROOME, TEAM SKY, in 86:21:40
2 Romain BARDET, AG2R LA MONDIALE, at 4:05
3 Nairo Alexander QUINTANA ROJAS, MOVISTAR TEAM, at 4:21
4 Adam YATES, OBE, at 4:42
5 Richie PORTE, BMC RACING TEAM, at 5:17
6 Alejandro VALVERDE BELMONTE, MOVISTAR TEAM, at 6:16
7 Joaquin RODRIGUEZ OLIVER, TEAM KATUSHA, at 6:58
8 Louis MEINTJES, LAMPRE – MERIDA, at 6:58
9 Daniel MARTIN, ETIXX – QUICK STEP, at 7:04
10 Roman KREUZIGER, TINKOFF, at 7:11
175 Sam BENNETT, BORA ARGON 18, at 5:17:14
