A self-described ‘bad day’ on the first mountain stage at the Tour de France for Dan Martin and Cannondale-Garmin was immediately rectified on stage 11 to Cauterets with the reward of second place and the combativity prize.
The Irishman ignored the signs from his legs to infiltrate the day’s breakaway which had taken two hours to form, taking it upon himself to repair the damage of the climb to La Pierre Saint Martin where he and Andrew Talansky didn’t have “power left” and finished 11:34 minutes down on stage winner Chris Froome.
“It was a bit unexpected at the start as the guys kept it under control to try and get into the breakaway,” Martin said after his second placed in this Tour de France with hint of pride and resignation.
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“I tried to go in a few breaks and tried to go with Thomas Voeckler on the cat 3 [Côte de Loucrup] but I had really bad legs and couldn’t follow the break when they went. I don’t know why but I just decided to attack, I was just talking to Andrew before about normal stuff, then I had this gut instinct to attack and felt like the right thing to do even though you really should say it’s the wrong thing to do, it worked out in the end.”
A blistering ascent of the Col d’Aspin saw Martin ride across a four-minute gap and join the breakaway, taking maximum points on the category 1 climb before the long descent into Plan Sainte-Marie-de-Campan leading into the hors catégorie Col du Tourmalet.
With the break starting to splinter on the highest climb in this year’s Tour, Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) decided to go on his own to claim the five thousand euro prize along with the solo stage win.
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