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Martin eighth as Sagan grabs glory

Ireland’s Dan Martin started his maiden Tour de France with a superb 8th place finish on the opening road stage from Liège to Seraing yesterday.

Martin told the Irish Examiner on Saturday that his ambition for the opening week was to stay out of trouble but take whatever chances presented themselves, and he stayed true to that when he found himself towards the front as the race reached its final few hundred metres yesterday.

Though he was aggressive, the Dubliner didn’t have the legs of Slovakian sprint sensation Peter Sagan, who took a fine win ahead of Swiss powerhouse Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Nissan) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky Procycling).

Martin, known for his climbing prowess more so than his sprinting, will target stage wins when the race hits the Alps next week but his performance yesterday will certainly give him confidence that he’s right on form following a heavy crash in the Criterium du Dauphine last month.

Martin now lies 24th on GC after he turned in a solid performance on Saturday’s prologue over 6.4 kilometres; 24 seconds off winner Cancellara with first cousin Nicolas Roche (Ag2R La Mondiale) a second further behind. Roche is 25th on GC.

But yesterday belonged to Sagan, who announced his arrival at the Tour with a trademark finish- biding his time before launching a brilliant sprint that few in the peloton are capable of matching.

Cancellara had taken a flier a third of the way up the final 2.4km ascent to the finish in search of back-to-back stage wins, and it seemed only Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) could go with him.

Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) bridged the gap and the trio were clear with 500m to go, but Sagan powered away to claim a first Tour stage win of his career.

He was the youngest Tour stage winner since a 21-year-old Lance Armstrong triumphed in 1993.

“Of course people told me I was the favourite,” Sagan said.

“I knew that (Sylvain) Chavanel would try something at the end. I wanted to attack at the hardest section.

“It was very, very good that Cancellara was there. I saw that he had strong legs. It was good to take it easy behind him. I’m just happy it went so well.

“I won and I have to thank team-mates who helped me a lot to get to the foot of the climb at the front of the bunch.”

After the day’s early six-man break was swallowed up, the teams regrouped and attempted to get their leaders into position.

Sagan will wear the green jersey today in a points classification competition led by Cancellara, who will again don the maillot jaune as race leader.

For Cancellara, who tried to discourage Sagan from following his wheel in the finale, the finish was reminiscent of Milan-San Remo when Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) used similar tactics to defeat the Swiss.

“Once I made my attack it would have been good to get some help,” Cancellara said.

“In Milan-San Remo it was the same but I’m not going to attack and ease off and end up somewhere out the back – that is not my style: when I go, then I go and really put the hammer down until the end.

“That’s what I’ve done. I lost this game of poker but one day I’ll win.

“In a final like that you never know and today I think we had a great end to the stage and now we’re looking forward to tomorrow for a sprinters’ day.”

Today’s stage is a pan-flat stage and takes the riders 207 kilometres from Visé to Tournai. Home

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