Gutted Martin crashes out within sight of victory

Ireland’s Dan Martin suffered one of the biggest disappointments of his career yesterday when he crashed within sight of the line in the iconic one-day Belgian classic, Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

Martin, the defending champion, went into the event as one of the favourites and looked perfectly poised to take the win with less than 200 metres to go when he escaped from a select group.

The Garmin-SHARP rider was looking to bridge to two others, Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) and Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale), who had gone clear on the last climb of the day.