Race report from Dan Martin:

It was a strange day actually — I didn’t feel too great and then we only did 30km in the first hour of the race, Italian style just riding along chatting.

But when the race started it really did. Pete and I were in a number of breaks but Tom P got in the right group, thankfully a strong one with 12 guys.

Two teams missed it and rode full gas behind. After the 15km 7% climb in the middle of the race a group of 35 riders were in front with me, Tom, Pete and Christophe. The guys rode great to put me in position. Pete sacrificed himself when a group got away to close it down before I attacked with one lap to go only to be brought back.

On paper the Dauphine is a tough race to read. In a somewhat unusual parcours, the Dauphine will have decisive stages all the way to the final climb of the final stage to La Toussuire. The first uphill finish comes on stage two, and looks like it will be a tough climb, even though it only gains around 1500 feet over 8-10k.

Perhaps the most interesting day to watch Tour contenders comes shortly after on stage 3. Everyone in the race who has aspirations of winning the Tour de France overall, will want to have a great showing on stage 3 in Grenoble.

After a sprint stage 4, and a mid-mountain day on stage 5, the Dauphine will face it’s toughest climb on stage 6 to Collet d’Allevard. Stage 6 is the final day where overall contenders in the Dauphine have a super tough finish to reinforce their lead, or try to take over the lead. The stage 6 finish will certainly be fun to watch!

Today the rain hit us for the first time this week, not the best day as the streets here on the outskirts of Barcelona get extremly slippery.

It was a short stage so the attacks started right away. We covered all the moves from the beginning. Unfortunenatly a big crash very early on the day took down VDV and Dean.

VDV was quick back on the bike with no serious problems, but Julian got it worse and had to go in the ambulance with a neck protection on and very dizzy. Luckily after the x-ray there were no broken bones.

Garmin Transitions pro Dan Martin is managing to remain positive about this year’s Giro, despite losing seven minutes and 59 seconds on Monday’s third stage of the Grand Tour.

The Irishman had gone into the event hoping to take a high overall placing, knowing that he would be able to ride his own race because his team-mate Christian Vande Velde was using it to prepare for the Tour de France.

Three stages into it, though, he is already 106th overall, nine minutes and seven seconds off the Maglia Rosa held by Alexandre Vinokourov.

It was reasonable to expect the 23 year old to be crestfallen on Monday evening, yet he was surprisingly mellow about the day’s events.

“I stayed upright somehow, but I got caught up in the crash that ended VDV’s [Christian Vande Velde’s] race. That is pretty much what split the group,” he told VeloNation.com.

“We shouldn’t really have lost so much time…we got into a group of 20-25 riders and were maybe 20 seconds off the back of the front group with 20 kilometre to go, but then everyone sat up.

“I couldn’t really understand it – we had ridden that hard to get close to the group but they all just started riding easy. It was a weird situation and we ended up losing a lot more time than we should have. But at least I am still in the race.”