Tony Martin victorious in Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
Feb 02 2017 11:46 pm CET
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDSTony Martin of Katusha-Alpecin has secured his first ever victory for his new team by winning the second stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. BMC Racing Team's Greg Van Avermaet is the new overall leader.
Cyril Gautier of AG2R La Mondiale, Johann Van Zyl of Dimension Data and Michael Schar of BMC Racing Team chose the second day of the Spanish race to escape from the peloton in what turned out to be a rather rainy stage.
While Wednesday's Team Time Trial had been particularly sunny, the riders now had to act with much more care, especially during the two descents of the Montgo near the finishing town of Denia.
The three created a significant advantage but were caught at about 15 kilometers from the finish.
Martin, for whom the TTT didn't go quite as hoped, attacked in the final kilometers and did well to finish solo with a 11-second advantage over a chase group with Pim Ligthart, Primoz Roglic, David de la Cruz, Michele Scarponi, Amaro Antunes and Nairo Quintana.
"It was a pretty tough stage. Also pretty dangerous, a lot of crashes. I knew the final really well. We had a lot of training camps here. I had a plan in my mind and in the end it worked out," Martin said at the press conference.
"It's amazing. I couldn't have expected a better start. We worked really hard with the team," he added.
Greg Van Avermaet, who finished at 19 seconds from Martin, is the new leader in the general classification.
"It wasn't easy. There was a lot of rain and wind. I think we controlled the race with the whole team. In the end I didn't have enough teammates to close the gap," the Belgian explained.
"But it's cool to be in the Yellow Jersey. We know these roads well as we always train here so I'm happy to be back here," he added.
