Dan Martin climbs into top 10 on Tour

Dan Martin took his best result of the Tour de France so far and moved into the top 10 yesterday on a day where Belgian Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team) took the race leader’s yellow jersey from the shoulders of overnight leader Peter Sagan (Tinkoff).

Martin was one of the very strongest on the lumpy 216-kilometre stage that finished at Le Lorian and on the categorised climbs that led to the finish, he imposed himself as others around him faded.

He was fifth across the line, 5:07 down on Van Avermaet and though that deficit appears like a lot on the face of it, the Irishman and the other big favourites won’t yet be so concerned with so many big mountain days to come.