Martin grabs yellow on moving day in Catalunya

Ireland’s Dan Martin recorded one of the biggest achievements of his career yesterday by taking the queen stage of the Volta A Catalunya and also taking over the race leader’s yellow jersey.

The Garmin-SHARP rider put in one of the performances of his life to forge his way into the day’s 25-man breakaway after 40 kilometres and managed to stay out front for the remainder of the 217km trek, as one after another of his fellow escapees tailed off — one of whom was his cousin Nicolas Roche (SaxoBank-Tinkoff).

Martin was, of course, helped by the news that overnight leader Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), along with teammate Eros Capecchi, crashed midway through the stage and subsequently abandoned, which meant a new man would be in yellow by day’s end.