Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

news

Vuelta Stage 6: Heartbreak for Tony Martin as day-long solo break caught metres from line; Michael Mørkøv wins

Double world time trial champion attacks from the start and stays out alone for all but the closing metres of the stage

There was heartbreak for Omega Pharma-Quick Step's Tony Martin at the Vuelta this afternoon as the double world time trial champion, who had launched a solo attack at the start of today's Stage 6, was caught just metres from the finish line in Caceres, the win going to Saxo-Tinkoff's Michael Mørkøv.

The Danish national champion, himself a winner of the rainbow jersey on the track, takes the first Grand Tour stage win of his career at the age of 28.

However, the day belonged to Martin who had appeared to be about to be caught with a little more than 10 kilometres of the 175 kilometre stage from Guijuelo remaining, but managed to hold off the chasing peloton for all but those fateful final few metres.

For the second day running, Lampre-Merida's Maximiliano Richeze finished second, while RadioShack-Leopard's Fabian Cancellara was third.

Martin himself finished seventh, having set a blistering pace of 44.8 kilometres an hour for a stage on which he was out on his own until that latest of catches. Naturally, he takes the day's combativity prize.

Astana's Vincenzo Nibali retains the race lead.

When Martin attacked at the beginning of the stage, one rider tried to go after him – former Italian national time trial champion, Marco Pinotti of BMC Racing, his former team mate at HTC Highroad.

Pinotti himself had said this morning that today’s stage was an ideal opportunity to go on the break as preparation for the world time trial championship in Florence next month, but his move in pursuit of Martin was quickly shut down.

¡Toro! (copyright Unipublic/Graham Watson)

The 28-year-old German, looking to win his third successive world title in the discipline next month, had a lead of more than 7 minutes at one point, but as the race headed into its final 20 kilometres appeared to be in some discomfort, and a bunch sprint seemed the inevitable conclusion to the stage.

Heading into the final 5 kilometres, however, he had teased his advantage back out to around a quarter of a minute, and despite Argos-Shimano and Orica-GreenEdge helping lead the charge, the impossible – and with it, one of the all-time great Grand Tour solo rides – looked like it might just happen.

At 2 kilometres, the advantage was still 9 seconds; under the flamme rouge for the final 1,000 metres, it was 6 seconds.

No-one would have begrudged Martin, winner of a Giro time trial stage in 2011 his first road stage win in the Spanish Grand Tour; it wasn’t to be, but his brave attempt will long be remembered.

Afterwards, he said: "It was an unusual time trial of almost four hours. I decided to enter the breakaway to try and protect the team. Because even if I was caught, in the final we will also have Gianni Meersman and Andrew Fenn able to do something good in the sprint. So, I decided to go and suddenly I was alone but I took immediately a few minutes. At that point I said, why not?

"Actually I think it was a good move. I always went pretty good. I have to say the tailwind helped me. Without it, there was no chance to go until the end. In the final the gap was really small. At 10km to go they were really close, and I thought about giving up. But no, I decided to relaunch the action and then I started thinking when they couldnt close the gap that maybe I can do it after all.

"But, I was tired with 5km to go, the parcour was hard in the final and worked against me with some small uphills, and also the peloton was going full gas. I stayed focused on the finish line. It was a strange feeling. I saw the stripe of the finish line and could hear the peloton behind at the same time. But I was really going all out with my legs. I couldn't go any faster than I did in the last 200 metres. Unfortunately, they caught me.

"As usual when you do something like that it's always bittersweet. From one end you think you could have won with a bit more luck. On the other hand I felt like a winner. Everybody wanted to talk with me after the finish. I had the feeling I did something great and difficult. I also went to the podium for the combativity award. It was really special to be there in front of the public.

"If I want to think positively it was also great training for the World Championships. The line between doing something super and losing is really thin in this sport, but you have to try. I think it was the first time I did a breakaway like this, especially for so long. Even if I didn't win I will have it in my memories for a long time."

Michael Mørkøv wins Vuelta 2013 Stage 6 (copyright Unipublic/Graham Watson)

Following his victory, Mørkøv, whose only previous pro win on the road was the Danish national championship earlier this year, said: "I’ve been a world champion and an Olympic medallist on the track. I’ve not participated in bunch sprints before but I knew the circumstances of today’s finale were all right for me to use the speed I got from training and racing on the track. I had a bit of luck too. Without Fabian Cancellara’s chase, we wouldn’t have caught Tony Martin.

"I felt good in the last ten kilometres. I realised I had some kick left. It was a question of positioning in the field. I found the right spot behind Cancellara who did a long sprint and I used this kick with 200 metres to go. I had this amazing feeling that I could probably win. Indeed, it’s very special to make it."

Mørkøv had a spell in the polka dot jersey in his debut Tour de France last year but didn't make the team for this year's 100th edition of that race. He reflected: "It hurt me because I was well prepared for racing. I was in my best shape ever. But we know the game. Part of it is not being selected.

"I just changed my focus to the Vuelta and now, I’m very happy about that. In the first part of this season, our team Saxo-Tinkoff was maybe not as successful in terms of victories as usual but the two wins we already got [team mate Nicolas Roche won Stage 2] bring a great morale in the squad."

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

Add new comment

8 comments

Avatar
Simon E | 11 years ago
0 likes

A hugely memorable stage, people will remember it for a long time.

I don't think the peloton was as organised as it could have been and they seemed to back off more than once, leaving Tony Martin hanging too long with less than 10 km to go. His speed dropped off at one point but when the gap held he probably thought "why not keep going?" and he pulled away.

The following day there were lots of teams getting to the front and then being overtaken in run in to the finish, so I suspect that no team has enough really strong rouleurs to control the race for very long at the end of a long day (and with a week of racing done already).

@farrell, I think Fabian only hit the front on the last straight, he just started his sprint before the others (and if I was a sprinter I'd let him do it - he's strong but not that fast).

Avatar
farrell | 11 years ago
0 likes

Interesting that riders are name checking Cancellara as the main driver behind the chase.

Avatar
Colin Peyresourde | 11 years ago
0 likes

Yeah, TT bikes aren't allowed in mass start races. Think of the carnage as the peloton negotiated road furniture - they're no good for bunch cycling, no good on the hills, and no good if you need to do a lot of steering.

I don't think it would have made any difference if he had his TT bike, and actually he may have made his neck very sore if he had. The point being that the peloton let him dangle out the front with their calculation of time. Sometimes the break works because the calculation is wrong, and happenstance allows the break to flourish, but in this case they let him dangle at around 6-8 seconds in the final 3-6kms because they knew they could close him down, it was just about which team was going to do the work to reel him in.

With 1km to go it was very close, I just wish he still had enough to get out of the saddle and sprint the final 100m - maybe he would have won. I'm sure he is kicking himself, but I don't think there was much he could do since he was so exhausted.

He certainly added a heap of drama to what otherwise might have been a dull stage. I'm not sure that this will have improved his chances at the worlds.

Avatar
a.jumper | 11 years ago
0 likes

TT bikes aren't allowed on mass start stages but anything would probably have given him the thirty metres he needed.

The man's a legend. Wiggins should be worried about the world championships.

Avatar
antonio | 11 years ago
0 likes

I was in as much agony as Martin willing him to get to the line, how heroic!

Avatar
nicstevenson | 11 years ago
0 likes

I asked this on Twitter and didn't get an answer so I'll try here instead - does any one know if it would have been within the rules for Martin to change from his road bike to a TT bike from his car yesterday?

...

And if he could have, would *that* have made a difference?!

My suspicion is that with race radio and such precise power info, the timing is so precise for catches it almost always usually wouldn't do - but yesterday they seemed to come so close to getting it wrong, and if Spartacus had punctured I think Martin would have made it!

Avatar
rabeynon | 11 years ago
0 likes

here's an interesting thought, if Martin had been on a venge instead of a tarmac, would he have made it?  39

Avatar
russyparkin replied to rabeynon | 11 years ago
0 likes
rabeynon wrote:

here's an interesting thought, if Martin had been on a venge instead of a tarmac, would he have made it?  39

no it wouldnt have made a shred of difference.

Latest Comments