Ireland’s Dan Martin gave his Belgian team Etixx-QuickStep a boost on Wednesday by beating off a bunch of climb specialists to a snow-capped summit win on stage three of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya.
The victory also gave Martin the overall lead after he attacked 500m from home after Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana had first tried to shake off a group of about 30 who led the race up the fourth climb of the day.
At the 1725m altitude Molina ski station, the 29-year-old Martin dug deep to hold off Contador of Tinkoff, two seconds adrift in second, and up-and-coming French climber Romain Bardet of AG2R La Mondiale in third.
Tejay van Garderen and Richie Porte of the BMC Racing Team were fourth and fifth respectively, while Froome of Sky, the first to try and break, was 12 seconds behind Martin.
“The guys were incredible,” Martin said. “Since this morning they said they will ride for me and did a fantastic job. It’s great to see how much confidence they have in me and this only makes me stronger.”
“There was some headwind on the climb, so it was important to time the attack to perfection on that steep part of La Molina,” he said.
Looking ahead to today’s stage from Baga to Port Aine, Martin said he was braced for another testing day.
“That’s another hard climb and it will be difficult to defend the jersey. Still, we have a very strong team and will try to keep the lead,” he said. “The time gaps are always small in this race, so who will come out on top tomorrow will probably win the general classification.”
Earlier in the day, French rider Nacer Bouhanni, the overnight leader after two bunch sprint stage wins, pulled out with a stomach complaint.
The fourth stage was to be raced yesterday.
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