Race report from Dan Martin
It was definitely a week split in two, as far as significance with the GC being set after stage 4 and then with the final three bunch sprints, but that is just what the results said. This was a seriously hard week of bike racing!
The last two days were constant attacking with no breakaway, a rarity in pro racing. There were two or three times in each stage that the GC contenders had no teammates left, with Valverde forced to pace a select group. Tired legs were very evident on the last day, but the team kept the fight going till the end with Svein almost holding off the sprinter’s teams with a late attack.
It’s been a lot of fun racing this week. Everyone was super motivated, capable physically of taking it to the world’s best which filled me with confidence that if anything did go wrong I had a huge safety net. It was definitely a team effort to stand on the podium and I hope it can give everyone confidence so we can keep the momentum rolling. Thanks boys!
Race report from Johnny Weltz
Everybody was looking forward to a fast short stage , and indeed it was! Attacks were going right away, but we didn’t want to be part of the early breaks today as the mountain jersey was not decided jet. So the Spanish teams would try to keep it together to the sprint half way in to the stage, which made for a crazy speed up the mountain!
Once over, the field got reformed and the sprinter’s teams took over to control. It worked all the way to 9km before the finish when Svein put in a hard attack and went solo, building up a 30 second lead running in to the Formula 1 track in Barcelona. He was caught at only 1500 meter to go!!
But practice this and he will be successful more than once in the future. A bunch sprint meant the GC stayed the same. Dan finished on an impresive second spot on GC. Not much to say just except very good! Much more to come from him.
Team Garmin-Slipstream, stage 6 results
1. Greg Henderson 2h26.51
20. Martijn Maaskant
43. Dan Martin
49. Christian Meier
62. Timmy Duggan
122. Svein Tuft +0.48
Team Garmin-Slipstream, GC results
1. Alejandro Valverde 24h12.10
2. Dan Martin +0.15
38. Christian Meier +9.59
58. Timmy Duggan +21.35
114. Svein Tuft +45.29
122. Martijn Maaskant +47.29
145. Mike Friedman +1.12.31
