Portugal stage 8: Martin 10th, Best Young and holding steady on GC after hard day

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O continued to defend young Dan Martin’s position despite today’s deceivingly hard stage profile at the Volta a Portugal. Chris Sutton was part of an early break that eventually broke up on the climbs. With the help of his hard working teammates, Dan Martin (pictured above) finished 10th on the stage, sticking close to all the top contenders and maintaining his 11th place in the overall classification. He still leads the Best Young Rider classification.

Pat McCarty had a strong finish in the lead group with Christian Meier and Lucas Euser close behind. Christian in particular went from 92nd to 49th overall while Pat moved into the top 20.

Tomorrow’s five-climb day will prove the ultimate test of the Argyle Armada and hopefully Dan can maintain or even increase his time gap before the final time trial on Sunday.

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O Stage Results
1. Candido Barbosa 4h17′30″
10. Dan Martin +04″
20. Pat McCarty +10″
49. Christian Meier +1′01″
52. Lucas Euser +1′01″
94. Chris Sutton +13′05″
115. Steven Cozza +25′06″
119. Tyler Farrar +25′06″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC
1.Rui Sousa 35h03′09″
11. Dan Martin +5′26″
19. Pat McCarty +9′04″
30. Lucas Euser +13′26″
81. Christian Meier +48′51″
91. Steven Cozza +54′22″
93. Chris Sutton +56′51″
106. Tyler Farrar +1h10′51″

Team Garmin-Chipotle Best Young
1. Dan Martin 22h41′50″
2. Tiago Machado +1′23″
3. Jose Herrada +2′26″