Tour de France: Dan Martin chases hard to stay 18th

Dan Martin survived a scare to finish in the main bunch on stage seven of the Tour de France on Friday, crossing the line in the same time as the stage winner Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jumbo-Visma). Martin was caught behind a split in the bunch and his team had to chase hard, but he got back to the other general classification contenders.

He placed 53rd on the stage while Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb) had a freak crash and ultimately rolled in 173rd, four minutes 25 seconds back.

“I’ve no idea what happened,” Roche said afterwards. “First thing I was having a chat, then the next thing I felt like my front wheel locked up and I went flat on the handlebars. I’d like to know what happened. I’ll see tonight when we look at it with the mechanic. I punctured at the same time and the tyre came off.”

Roche was fortunately unhurt. Martin remains 18th overall, one minute 46 seconds behind the race leader Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo). Roche slips 12 places to 63rd overall and is 21 minutes 31 seconds back. He is targeting stage wins in the race rather than the general classification.

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Saturday’s stage covers 199 kilometres through the Massif Central and while it lacks the high altitude climbs that will feature later in the race, Martin predicts it could be a very difficult day.

Tour de France Stage 7, Belfort to Chalon-sur-Saône

1, Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jumbo-Visma) 230 kilometres in 6 hours 2 mins 44 secs; 2, C. Ewan (Lotto Soudal); 3, P. Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe); 4, S. Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida); 5, J. Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates); 6, E. Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) all same time

Irish: 53, D. Martin (UAE Team Emirates) same time; 173, N. Roche (Team Sunweb) at 4 mins 25 secs

General classification after stage 7

1, Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) 29 hours 17 mins 39 secs; 2, J. Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 6 secs; 3, D. Teuns (Bahrain-Merida) at 32 secs; 4, G. Bennett (Team Jumbo-Visma) at 47 secs; 5, G. Thomas (Team Ineos) at 49 secs; 6, E. Bernal (Team Ineos) at mins 53 secs

Irish: 18, D. Martin (UAE Team Emirates) at 1 min 46 secs; 63, N. Roche (Team Sunweb) at 21 mins 31 secs

Points classification: 1, Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) 177 pts; 2, S. Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) 121; 3, E. Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) 117

Mountains classification: 1, Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) 43 pts; 2, G. Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) 30; 3, X. Meurisse (Wanty-Gobert) 27

Young riders classification: 1, Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo 2) at 9 hours 17 mins 39 secs; 2, E. Bernal (Team Ineos) at 53 secs; 3, E. Mas (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 1 min 23 secs

Teams classification: 1, Trek-Segafredo, 88 hours 27 mins 39 secs; 2, Movistar Team, at 1 min 39 secs; 3, Groupama-FDJ, at 2 mins 4 secs

Other: 8, UAE Team Emirates, at 11 mins 3 secs; 17, Team Sunweb, at 39 mins 9 secs