Fourth on stage three and then second on stage eight last week, Dan Martin went agonisingly close to a Tour de France stage victory once again on the 11th stage of the race.

The Irish climber put in a solo pursuit of the Polish rider Rafal Majka towards the end of the most difficult stage thus far, but while he was closing in on him he ran out of time and crossed the line one minute back in Cauterets.

It was a brave performance and one he said was motivated by the bad day he and his team had on Tuesday’s stage to La Pierre Saint-Martin.

‘Day’s break’

“We just wanted to show we were still in the race. It was a dark day yesterday (Tuesday) for the whole team,” he said at the finish. “I was still not right early on and while I wanted to be in the day’s break from the start, I didn’t have the legs early on.”

Martin’s team rode hard to bring back an early break but he missed out on a seven-man move which went clear after the third category climb of the Côte de Mauvezin.

The break contained two past winners of the Tour’s King of the Mountains competition, Majka and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), the Belgian Serge Pauwels (MTN-Qhubeka) and four others. The septet built a four minute, 10 second lead by the halfway point, 94 kilometres in, and soon afterwards Martin attacked and began a long chase.

“I don’t know what I was thinking there,” he admitted afterwards, acknowledging the effort he had to put in. “I don’t know why, but my gut instinct said to attack.”

Martin bridged across on the Col d’Aspin and then took the top King of the Mountains point at the summit. However the effort told on him and he was unable to respond when Majka jumped away seven kilometres from the top of the famed Col du Tourmalet, the highest point of this year’s Tour at 2115 metres.

Behind the Astana team of last year’s winner Vincenzo Nibali was trying to set the Italian up after his disappointing day, and their pace-setting shredded the peloton and reduced it to approximately 30 riders, including race leader Chris Froome (Sky).

This was further cut down to 14 riders, including overall contenders Froome, Nibali, Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana (Movistar); Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), the Giro d’Italia winner and two-time Tour champion.

Martin began his push after the Tourmalet and while he was two minutes back with 10 kilometres to go, closed a big to Pauwels, who had been chasing Majka. He caught and immediately attacked him on the final climb up to Cauterets and continued to inch closer to the leader, but was still a minute back at the line.

He missed out on the win, but his aggression was rewarded with the day’s award for most combative rider and a resulting trip to the podium.

“I didn’t have the legs to follow Rafal when he attacked on the climb, he just rode so strong,” Martin said. “But second again, it is already not bad.

“I am still trying to get that win. This is my third try, but it wasn’t third time lucky, unfortunately. We’ll give it another go, though. It is a long Tour, 10 stages left.”

Froome faced no serious attacks in the finale, although Dutchman Bauke Mollema (Trek Factory Racing) did get clear inside the final kilometres and gain 10 seconds. He finished five minutes 11 off Majka, but is still over seven minutes behind Froome in 10th overall.

The British leader is a comfortable two minutes 52 seconds ahead of his closest rival Van Garderen and has inched closer to what would be a second Tour win in three years.

‘Brutal’

“I’ve got to say the first two hours today were brutal. It’s a shame that there isn’t more [TV]coverage of that part of the race because that’s really exciting racing,” Froome stated.

The team is likely to face more of the same on the 12th stage, a 195-kilometre jagged-tooth profile which crosses four climbs including the category one Col de la Core and the Port de Lers plus the concluding hors-categorie ascent of Plateau de Beille.

Providing he recovers, it could prove to be another opportunity for Martin, while fellow Irishman Nicolas Roche will again be working for his Sky leader Froome. As for the third Irishman, Sam Bennett (Bora-Argon 18), he will hope to once again survive the mountains and thus be in a position to chase a high stage result when the profile flattens out again.