Martin relishing mountain tests

Dan Martin slipped back to 13th overall at the Tour de France yesterday following the day’s gruelling 11th stage individual time-trial.

The Garmin-SHARP rider had expected to cede significant time to the stage winner, in this case world champion Tony Martin, but his main goal was not to lose too much time on general classification.

The 26-year-old started the day in eighth overall, 2 mins 28 secs behind race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky) but following the latter’s blistering effort around the 33-kilometre course — which saw him finish second on the stage — Martin lost over three minutes and now trails Froome by almost six minutes.