Published on : 05/15/2022
The leader of the Cofidis team did a great job the day before and managed to stay with the best on Sunday, throughout one of the most difficult stages of this Giro. 11th at the finish, he keeps his place in the top 10 in 6th position, on the eve of a well deserved rest day.
It was the day of all the dangers, the one where the physical condition was more than ever submitted to the test of the difficulties. The Giro is often considered as one of the most difficult Grand Tours and this stage, in the heart of the Apennines, proved it again. The reason? The climb of the Blockhaus that had to be tackled throughout the 191 km to be covered.
Martin, 28 seconds behind the pink jersey
After a great performance "almost inadvertently", Guillaume Martin had to hold on and resist in order to keep his place of honour in the overall classification. And the leader of the Nordic team didn't fail. It was a tough race, the favourites had to explain themselves once more but the rider from Normandy held on to the group of leaders. He crossed the line in 11th place, 1 min 08 sec behind the winner of the day, Australian Jai Hindley.
In the overall classification, Guillaume Martin kept his position in the top 10. In 6th place, he is only 28 seconds behind the pink jersey of Spain's Juan Pedro Lopez. The rider from Normandy shows that he can be counted on with two weeks to go until the finish on May 29th in the streets of Verona. Before taking the road again in Pescara on Tuesday, the riders will finally have a day of rest. This will be all the more welcome as they have already covered 1,470 km since the start in Budapest ten days ago.
THEY SAID
Guillaume Martin: "It was a stage that I was a little bit afraid of after the efforts made yesterday. I was hoping that I had recovered well and it was pretty good. From the beginning of the race, I had good sensations as well as in the final. I'm happy with my performance and where I am at the end of the week.
It started in a complicated way on Etna and I managed to put things right. If I look back at this weekend, it is really positive thanks to the time gained on the main favourites. I am still in the game for the overall. Now it is only the beginning of the Giro, there are still a lot of things to do but I am well surrounded. I would like to thank my team-mates who took care of me since the start in Hungary and I think that we will continue in this way. I will try to recover well tomorrow and during the first days of next week in order to face the next difficult stages with motivation. "
Roberto Damiani, Directeur Sportif: "It was a good day. Guillaume lost two places in the overall classification but he is now 28 seconds behind the leader. He showed that he is making good progress and was much more comfortable than on the Etna stage. The result of the week is quite good, we are well placed in the general classification and we feel that the team is in a good dynamic. We will take advantage of the rest day to rest and to prepare the second week of the Giro. It will be a little bit easier at the beginning before a weekend that will be very hard. We will try to approach it with a stronger morale and good health to support Guillaume and to do everything we can to be successful."