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Rough Riders

On the road: disappointing finale sees Martin's challenge falter in France

Irish cyclist Daniel Martin was poised to strike on the final day of the Tour of the Mediterranean before finishing in 27th place.

DAN MARTIN (TEAM GARMIN-CERVELO) finished the five day Tour of the Mediterranean in 27th place on G.C. having managed 36th place on yesterday’s final stage on Mont Faron.

The victory on the first major summit finish of the year went to the Frenchman David Moncoutié (Cofidis), who also won the final stage having caught and passed his compatriot Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2R-La Mondiale) to win the stage by seven seconds, giving him a final G.C. lead of 11 seconds.

Peraud had attacked with 4km to go, but the patience shown by the 35-year old Moncoutié to time his effort, gleaned from year’s of experience on this climb, proved to be the key to victory.

Veteran

Of all the riders in the race, Moncoutié has by far the most familiarity climbing Mont Faron. He is one of only two riders to take part in this week’s race to have won there previously (the other is Peraud’s Italian team mate, Rinaldo Nocentini).

Yesterday’s stage makes it a hat-trick of wins for Moncoutié on Mont Faron having won the equivalent stage in the Tour of the Mediterranean in 2003 and 2009. In total, the French veteran has finished in the top three on this climb on nine separate occasions.

Disappointment

Fortunes were very different for Irishman Dan Martin who was well poised to challenge Moncoutié for the overall victory having taken third place on the previous stage’s uphill finish to Biot.

This excellent result left Martin in fourth place on G.C., leaving him placed ahead of any other likely challengers on the summit finish of Mont Faron. But the final climb proved too much for Martin so early in the season as he ended up 1’40″ down on Moncoutié in 36th place, which resulted in him finishing seventh in the young rider’s classification.

Dominance

The Tour of the Mediterranean was dominated by the French. Each of the stages and the overall were all won by Frenchman, the first time this has occurred in the race’s 38 year history.

In addition to Moncutié winning Stage Five and the overall, the first stage was won by French champion Thomas Voeckler, while Stages Two, Three and Four were all won by Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM). By winning three stages in as many days, Feillu has already matched his tally of race wins that he amassed last year.

Martin continues his season at another French stage race, the Tour du Haut Var. It is a two day race starting on February 19th and was previously won by Seán Kelly in 1982 when it was organised as a one day race.