Climber-turned-sprinter Martin fifth in Tour of Romandie, stage 2

Race report from Johnny Weltz

Today the sun was out so we had a very fast start! A strong group got off and we were well represented with Timmy in it. But a strong chase for 20km left any option to escape impossible. After it was caught two riders went off and that was the break of the day.

As the stage moved along it became clear that it wouldn’t be a bunch sprint — Tyler climbed well, but was realistic about the options for him. So when things started to go apart it was our climbing guys who took over. A group of some 35 riders was formed and we had three guys in it with Dan, Lucas and Christian. The Rabobank team spotted it was good for them so they controlled the finale and got the win. We where well represented as Daniel played the sprint smart and finished fifth on the stage, which show he is back on the game after some time off!

Dan Martin has a quick laugh with director sportif Johnny Weltz

Race report from Dan Martin

The stage was really hard from the start with a good climb. Timmy got in a big break of like ten guys but some teams missed it which meant a flat out chase ’till we turned around and hit the headwind. Then the group kind of stopped and the two-man break went. I felt terrible at the start but the same as yesterday I seemed to ride into the stage.

I felt really strong but just didn’t have enough time to fully recover from Liege before the first day. So my plan was to not lose time today and see how I feel Saturday. But with four guys in the front group going into the sprint after the group blew to pieces on two really tough climbs in the final 25km, we were able to work together a bit.

The sprint was a new experience for me, but from a group of climbers I would always be confident of doing something. The group opened up with 300m to go so I jumped but hesitated — so I was just chasing the guys after that. Oh well, not bad for a first try! Just hope the climbing legs show up again soon!

Team Garmin-Slipstream, stage 2 results
1. Oscar Freire 4h06.56
5. Dan Martin
12. Christian Meier
24. Lucas Euser
71. Timmy Duggan +1.34
96. Tyler Farrar +7.18
99. Steven Cozza
102. Ricardo Van Der Velde
154. Kilian Patour +12.19

Team Garmin-Slipstream, GC results
1. Gregory Rast (Swi) Astana 6.19.13
44. Dan Martin +0.51
47. Lucas Euser +0.55
51. Christian Meier +0.58
63. Timmy Duggan +2.29
84. Tyler Farrar +7.47
90. Ricardo Van Der Velde +8.02
118. Steven Cozza +13.09
145. Kilian Patour +18.12

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Garmin Web Site, Home Page, Pearl Izumi Web site, Race Reports and tagged with Dan Martin, Johnny Weltz, Timmy Duggan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.