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″

Only 76 riders (out of 106 who started) finished day’s final miserably wet stage of the Tour of Limousin with Trent Lowe and David Millar amongst the sturdy survivors. Finishing in a circuit, the final stage came down to a sprint with Trent Lowe finishing just behind the front group. With their first tune-up race over, most of the squad will soon head north to compete in the Tour of Ireland, then the Tour of Britain before hitting the Worlds in top form in September.

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O Stage Results
1. Benoit Vaugrenard 4h26′33″
38. Trent Lowe +09″
52. David Millar +1′48″
DNF Kilian Patour
DNF Magnus Backstedt
DNF Martijn Maaskant

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O Final GC
1. Sebastien Hinault 17h28′15″
23. Trent Lowe +2′06″
51. David Millar +33′13″

Just seconds behind the front group, Dan Martin finished 7th on today’s hilly stage 7, further increasing his lead as the Best Young Rider and maintaining his position in the overall classification. Dan still has two hard climbing days to increase his lead before the race finishes with an individual time trial on Sunday.

**Stay tuned for on special rider report from Portugal.**

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O Stage Results
1. Nuno Ribeiro 4h07′30″
7. Dan Martin +12″
25. Pat McCarty +1′30″
46. Christian Meier +2′44″
47. Lucas Euser +2′44″
99. Chris Sutton +7′43″
109. Tyler Farrar +11′06″
111. Steven Cozza +11′06″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC
1.Rui Sousa 30h45′35″

11. Dan Martin +5′26″
21. Pat McCarty +8′58″
31. Lucas Euser +12′29″
53. Steven Cozza +29′20″
85. Chris Sutton +43′50″
89. Tyler Farrar +45′49″
92. Christian Meier +47′54″

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

As expected, stage 3 of the Tour of Limousin completely shook up the overall classification with its challenging profile. As the team’s pure climber, Trent Lowe joined a mid-race breakaway of about 28 riders that finished with almost a 30-minute gap on the peloton. Trent finished 24th of the stage which moved him from 73rd overall to 24th.

Tomorrow’s final stage 4 finishes in Limoges where the riders will get to enjoy five laps of a finishing circuit that includes the 337 meter Mas Blanc.

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O Stage Results
1. Sebastien Hinault 4h33′59″
24. Trent Lowe +00″
31. Kilian Patour +29′17″
45. Magnus Backstedt +29′23″
54. David Millar +29′27″
87. Martijn Maaskant +29′27″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC
1. Sebastien Hinault 13h01′40″
24. Trent Lowe +1′59″
42. Martijn Maaskant +29′38″
71. David Millar +31′27″
87. Kilian Patour +33′30″
89. Magnus Backstedt +34′00″

CycleTo interviews Will Frischkorn on the ups and downs and FUN of bike racing.

Yesterday’s stage 6 here in Portugal was a typical transition stage from the first mountains of the race to the next. The team took a step back today from trying to represent ourselves in the breakaways to focus on the finish line. With 18 roundabouts in the last 10 km, we knew it would be a tricky finish. Without a full squad here and some of us climbers not being the best lead-out men in the business, we did what we could for Tyler. But the tight finish and barriers kept him from being able to fully launch that vicious sprint of his.

Today it is back to the mountains with the next three stages progressively getting harder with stage 9 packed full of climb after climb after climb. So far the race has been extremely aggressive, and by the looks of the stages, I don’t foresee that changing anytime soon.

Today’s stage 7 includes the race’s second uphill finish. But unlike the first - wait, let me rephrase that - much unlike the first (a 30km grueling pass to Portugal’s highest peak, Alto de Torre), we are presented with a shorter, steeper 7 km long category 2 climb. But no matter how long, steep, gradual, or technical the hill is here in Portugal, if it goes up, there will no doubt be fireworks. Dan is still flaunting the young rider jersey and we will be sure to look after him today, as he will be taking part in the fireworks with full force.

I wish I could give you a little more, but have no fear I will have plenty of stories for you in the next few days. The race has only just begun!

The last relatively flat day before the Volta a Portugal goes back into the hills, today’s stage ended in a field sprint with Tyler Farrar finishing 7th. Also finishing in the front group was Dan Martin, who turned 22 today.

Dan’s smart finishes in the front these last few flat stages has not only allowed him to hold steady on his lead as Best Young Rider but has allowed him to maintain his 11th place overall before the race moves back into the hills he so loves. Feeling better since his stage 3 report, Dan is rested and ready for the race to go vertical and is especially looking forward to Saturday’s penultimate five-climb day.

**Stay tuned for a special stage report from Lucas Euser.**

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O stage 6 results
1. Candido Barbosa 4h01′29″
7. Tyler Farrar +00″
23. Dan Martin +00″
33. Pat McCarty +07″
56. Lucas Euser +07″
58. Chris Sutton +17″
69. Steven Cozza +1′15″
70. Christian Meier +1′15″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC
1.Rui Sousa 26h37′41″

11. Dan Martin +5′38
19. Pat McCarty +7′52″
31. Lucas Euser +10′09″
47. Steven Cozza +18′38″
76. Tyler Farrar +35′07″
81. Chris Sutton +36′31″
108. Christian Meier +45′34″

Team Garmin-Chipotle Best Young
1. Dan Martin 22h41′50″
2. Tiago Machado +1′21″
3. Jose Herrada +1′25″

Despite a long breakaway, stage 2 of the Tour of Limousin all came down to a huge field sprint. Lucky Martijn Maaskant finished 13th on the stage and is now 15th in the overall classification.

Tomorrow’s penultimate stage from Brive to Cublac will be hardest of the four-day stage race and includes two category 2 and one category 1 climb. For those of you interested in follow the stage direct, there’s a great French site directvelo.com, that has written play-by-play, in French of course.

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O Stage Results
1. Yukiya Arashiro 4h23′47″
13. Martijn Maaskant +00″
38. David Millar +00″
71. Trent Lowe +00″
84. Kilian Patour +25″
102. Magnus Backstedt +49″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC
1. Nicolas Roche 8h27′29″
15. Martijn Maaskant +23″
66. David Millar +2′12″
73. Trent Lowe +2′12″
89. Kilian Patour +4′25″
93. Magnus Backstedt +4′49″