A SILLY LITTLE CRASH, that almost cost us dearly
We all missed a heart beat today in the last kilometer of the 5th stage of the Vuelta, when our star here, DAN MARTIN, was suddenly on the floor, a few riders on top of him, and all his rivals going full gas to the finish.
Luckily Dan came out of the incident just fine – no injuries and still in second place overall as the rules are clear. When an incident happens inside the 3 km mark, the riders involved will get the same time as the group they were part of when the incident occurred. Since the leader of the race, Roglic, finished 4 seconds in front of the group, Dan lost only 4 seconds and is trailing the current leader of the race by a mere 9 seconds.
It was a pretty tough day out there with the peloton chasing the first breakaway for 70 km at 50 km/h plus (52 km/h average in the first hour!). When finally caught, more breakaways formed and chased, with the ISN men chasing the dangerous ones. At one point, it was our Swissman Matteo Badilatti that chased GC man Sepp Kuss from Jumbo Visma, preventing him from taking a significant gap and endangering Dan’s position.
With tomorrow comes an even more formidable challenge, with an HC category mountaintop finish at freezing temperatures.
Here is Dan Martin for you as he saw it: The race, the crash, the team, and what lies ahead:
https://www.facebook.com/IsraelCyclingAcademy/videos/346121450005308
