Dan Martin's (Quick-Step Floors) growing confidence and stature in this year's Tour de France took another boost Wednesday when he finished second on stage 5. The Irish climber was best of the rest as Fabio Aru (Astana) soloed to the win at the summit of La Planche des Belles Filles.
After five days of tactically astute racing Martin has risen to fourth overall, 25 seconds down on new race leader and favourite, Chris Froome (Team Sky).
Other than the seconds conceded in the opening time trial, Martin hasn't put a foot out of step, gaining time at the tricky finish in Longwy and then dropping Froome and BMC's Richie Porte to finish second behind Aru on stage 5 and grab vital bonus seconds in the process. What will be most pleasing for Martin is that unlike last year, all of his attacks in this year's race have counted. Nothing has been wasted.
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"It was a cat and mouse game. Fabio went and we all looked at each other. He was super strong so congratulations to him. I knew that I just had to wait for the sprint but in the end, it didn't work out," Martin said as he sat slumped against the barriers.
"It's not really down to confidence. It's more calmness," Martin said when asked about his style of riding at this year's race.
"I'm just enjoying racing and enjoying riding the Tour de France. It's a great situation to be in and the team have been on a real roll this season. We're the number one team in the world and that does breed confidence, then I have some of the best riders around me."
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