The 2013 Vuelta a Espana continued today, and Stage 6 was the first stage without a categorised climb. It was a 175-kilometre stage from Guijuelo to Caceres, and even the flat stages of the Vuelta like springing a surprise or two.
Tony Martin, the reigning world time trial champion and Omega Pharma-Quickstep rider, initiated a break from the gun.
Other riders tried to join him, but couldn’t hold Martin’s tempo.
So Martin attempted a lone solo breakaway, one that was surely doomed to fail sooner rather than later.
It was a quiet day in the peloton, but for Martin, it was hot, and stressful, as it was reported he was suffering from saddle soreness throughout the majority of the stage.
His biggest gap was over six minutes, but with 40 kilometres to go it really started coming down.
No one team was ever dominant at the head of affairs, and most teams were seen contributing to the chasing at some point.
With ten kilometres to go, Martin’s lead was 20 seconds at most, and it looked for all the world that he would be swallowed up any minute.
However, five kilometres to go passed, and the lone rider was still infront. 2.5 to go, still the same situation.
Martin passed under the flamme rouge, indicating one kilometre to go, and he had a significant gap over the now panicking peloton.
Now every cycling neutral was screaming at the TV. Martin was in the home straight! He was going to do it!
He strained in the saddle, trying to get every ounce of power out of his tired legs, when Michael Morkov of Team Saxo-Tinkoff shot past in the last five metres.
It was so close, that Tony Martin still got a credible seventh. Morkov got a good win, a debut grand tour stage win that surpasses his spell in the polka dots at last year’s Tour as the best Morkov had done over three weeks.
He also beat the likes of Max Richeze and Fabian Cancellara, so it too was somewhat of a surprise.
The star of the show though was Tony Martin. As well as storming the day’s combativity prize, he sent a psychological message to men like Cancellara, Wiggins and Phinney, men who were looking to seize his crown as world time trial champion.
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