[ad_1]
Israel Start-Up Nation leader Dan Martin was hardly wrong at the Tour of Spain. After starting with third place in the opening stage at Arrate and winning stage 3 at La Leguna Negra, the Irishman slipped from his third place in the general classification to fourth place in stage 12 by the imposing Alto de l ‘Angliru.
Martin was one of only seven riders left in an elite leading group along with race leader Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) as the attacks flew through the painfully steep closing kilometers. Enric Mas, from Movistar, was the first to attack, taking out Richard Carapaz (Grenadiers of Ineos), Carthy and Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana), while Martin tried to continue but later said that he did not have the strength to continue.
“It was a super tough day again,” Martin said of the 109km stage packed with five qualifying climbs. “Every climb was done very fast, but it felt good. Angliru is more of a time trial than a race. Just step on the pedals as hard as you can and at the top you will see the result.
“It felt good even the steepest sections near the top, but I just didn’t have the strength to push the pedals harder. When Enric Mas attacked, he knew the more difficult sections were getting closer, so it was important not to go red and just ride at my speed. “
Martin’s result was seventh on stage, pinned to the back of Roglic and his teammate Sepp Kuss.
Carthy took the stage victory 26 seconds on the road and, with a time bonus, turned a 33-second deficit with Martin into a three-second lead and placed third overall. Carapaz regained Roglic’s lead with a 10-second lead, while Carthy edged out Martin to move into third place at 32 seconds.
The Irishman remained upbeat despite falling to fourth place at 35 seconds. But he is the only other driver within two minutes of the race lead at 1:50 and the next best, Wout Poels (Bahrain McLaren) is a distant 5:13. With everything related, Martín still has a chance in this Vuelta.
“It’s another solid performance though, and it’s important to keep fighting. You can see the best guys are very close, so every second counts. I did the best I could, so we have to be happy today,” he said.
“If you had told us at the beginning that on the second rest day we would be 35 seconds behind the lead, we would have taken it safely. Now I hope to have a rest day tomorrow and recovery to do a good time trial on Tuesday.”
Stage 13 is a mostly flat 33.7km individual time trial with a 1.8km steep climb like a stinger in the tail, and the next big challenge follows on the penultimate stage up to Alto de la Covatilla before the sprinter’s parade in Madrid.
[ad_2]