Dan Martin went clear in the final meters of the Mûr-de-Bretagne to take UAE Team Emirates first ever Tour de France stage win.
Second Career Win at Tour for Irishman
Today, Dan Martin earned the second Tour de France stage win of his career and in doing so became the first ever UAE Team Emirates rider to claim the coveted prize. The Irishman, who finished sixth in yesterday’s race, has looked strong in the saddle all week and had highlighted this stage as one of his main goals for the Tour. The team protected Martin well throughout the 181km route from Brest to Mur de Bretagne allowing him to match all the attacks and accelerations in the final kilometres of the race. On the final climb to the line, Martin timed his own attack to perfection and, as the gradient ramped up to 12%, he animated the race by powering away from the peloton and holding off the chasers to take UAE Team Emirates’ first stage win of this year Tour de France.
Commenting on today’s result, Martin said: “This is such an amazing feeling for me after so many second places at the Tour since my last one victory in the Grande Boucle. I was really relaxed all day and I was really looking forward to having a crack. When we got closer to the finish I was a bit nervous because of the head wind and I didn’t think it was going to happen. Then the race went really hard during the first part of the climb and a lot of riders got dropped and at that point I noticed that I didn’t have any team mates left so I thought why not have a try – and I did.
He continued: “It was the same place that I tried to attack in 2015, but got boxed in. It was a case of waiting for everybody to be in the red, because I know I can go further into the red. I put in an explosive attack that I didn’t know I still had, but there was no way I was letting anyone beat me to the line. Thankfully the legs were there and they took me all the way. Getting this victory – especially as the team’s leader and not just a GC rider – makes the tour a success already and now anything else is a bonus.”
Second Place for Pierre Latour
“I was not missing too much,” Latour commented after the stage. “We figured that if we arrived at the bottom of the climb well placed with either Alexis (Vuillermoz) or me, and if Romain (Bardet) was not in any trouble, then we would go for it. And I thought that was indeed the case at the bottom of the climb. I made an effort with a little more than a kilometer to go to the finish, then Dan (Martin) attacked. And when I saw that, I accelerated at the same time as Richie (Porte); I told myself this was the time to go. But the wind gusted from the right, and I was glued to the barriers. So I was missing a little.
“Romain lost 30 seconds today. That’s a pain, but it’s not a huge amount of time over three weeks. We will catch it back later.”
Bardet: “My rear wheel broke.”
“My rear wheel broke. I had to change my bike with Tony (Gallopin) three kilometers from the finish, and the effort to do that just killed me for the Mur,” Romain Bardet said. “It’s never a good thing to concede time like that. The whole pack was rolling very fast when I had my problem. But of course these are just the hazards of sport. Apart from that, everything’s fine. There are always twists and turns at the Tour de France. Today luck was simply not on our side.”
Valverde Close To Victory
Following his 4th place in Quimper on Wednesday, Alejandro Valverde came again just short to a fifth career stage win in the Tour de France – in the 13th anniversary of his maiden success in the race. The Spaniard finished 3rd at the top of the Mûr-de-Bretagne behind Martin and Latour.
“It was sad not to be able to win; another close call, but it is what it is,” Valverde commented. “It was a difficult finish by many factors: you needed to be in perfect position, you needed some resistance after a very hard day, also with the crosswinds, the pace before the finish… a mixture of everything. The most important thing is that I’m still with good legs, getting through difficult stages without any time lost. Fourth yesterday, third today… it’s awful not to win and pay the team-mates back, but I’m doing things well so far. I was able to keep focus when the crosswinds formed, didn’t lose the front group and could content today’s finish again – we’re getting through these difficult stages and fulfilling our goals for the first week.”
Fourth Day in Yellow for Van Avermaet
Greg Van Avermaet secured a fourth day in the leader’s yellow jersey at the Tour de France today after another strong performance from BMC Racing Team saw both the Belgian rider and his teammate, Richie Porte, right up at the front in another tense finale.
“It was a great ride by Martin and I was expecting something like that from him,” said Van Avermaet. “He is good at picking the right moment. I think if you win a stage like this after attacking from that point then you are the strongest guy. We tried to do a good job and Richie tried to set a good tempo for himself and to try and take some seconds over the rest of the contenders. I just hung in there as well as possible to maybe try to sprint but in the end, I had no power anymore. It was a super hard final climb and the tempo never slowed down. But I am happy that I could stay up there and only a few guys could hold the tempo on the climb. Overall, it was a good day and I have another day in yellow to look forward to.
“For sure, I am now thinking about the stage to Roubaix. It’s going to be a hectic stage and maybe the hardest one of the week but first, we have two stages to get through and you always have to concentrate in the Tour. Something can always happen but I hope to go into Roubaix in yellow. It’s the closest stage to Belgium and I like the cobblestones so, let’s go for it.”
“Today’s stage was a nice one to tick off,” Richie Porte added. “Yesterday and today were pretty stressful days coming into them but we didn’t lose time and we put time into some guys. For me, I got stuck on the front a bit but once you are there, you might as well stay there. I don’t have the punch to drop off and come back. Greg kept the jersey too so it was a good day for us.”
“It was a good GC day and it will be interesting now with Team Sky to see if they back Geraint Thomas or Froomey.”
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