UAE Team Emirates rider Martin earns his second stage win in Tour de France
Ireland’s Dan Martin won Stage 6 of the Tour de France atop the Mur de Bretagne, his second stage victory of his career in the race.
The UAE Team Emirates rider attacked with a kilometre left of the 181km stage from Brest, which finished with two ascents of the Alpe d’Hue.
The Birmingham-born rider held off a late push from AG2R La Mondiale’s Pierre Latour to cross the line alone, just ahead of the pack as the general classification hopefuls scrapped for seconds.
There was a slight split in the peloton behind, with Mitchelton-Scott’s Adam Yates part of a group that picked up a couple of seconds on the main pack, which contained Team Sky’s Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, Movistar’s Nairo Quintana and Mikel Landa, and BMC’s Richie Porte.
At the end of the stage, BMC’s Greg Van Avermaet retained the yellow jersey, with Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas moving up to second, three seconds back. Chris Froome was eight seconds back – losing five seconds in the overall standings – and Tom Dumoulin nearly a minute behind after suffering a mechanical problem with six kilometres left.
Martin, whose other career Tour stage win came in 2013, had finished second on this climb when it featured in the 2015 Tour and timed his attack to perfection.
“It’s great to get a win after so many second places since the last one,” Martin said. “I was afraid of the crosswinds and maybe it was adrenaline but the legs were there and it all worked out. There were a lot of con- tenders in that group so I was glad to hang on.”
Martin dedicated his win to his new team, who he joined from Quick Step after overtures from Sky and BMC in the close season.
“I came to this team to be the leader and the pressure at the beginning, of being the leader is why I didn’t do so well in Spring,” said Martin. “But there’s a great feeling in the bus now, laughing and joking and this win is for them, they really looked after me.
“It was an early break but it was my only opportunity for the stage win as I’d never have got it in a sprint. When you get an opportunity, if you think about it, it’s gone. You just go.
“So I set off, kept my head down, kept going and my legs felt good.”