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Race report: Martin defends on explosive climb; Haussler in breakaway

August 27, 2011 - Filed under: Team Garmin-Barracuda

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Dan Martin rode well up the final, steep wall at the end of Saturday’s hilly 177.3km eighth stage that saw Heinrich Haussler ride into the day’s main breakaway.

Martin rode to a morale-boosting ninth at 15 seconds behind stage-winner and new race leader Joaquim Rodriguez on up the 1km
“wall” that’s not ideal to Martin’s climbing style.

“It was crazy-steep. I just don’t have the power on these really steep parts. When it flatted out, I could take back some riders. I think I passed four-five guys in the last 150 meters. It was a really hard day,” Martin said.

“The legs are coming around a little bit. I am starting to feel a lot better. I just had that really bad day from sleeping at altitude after stage 4, that’s all it was.”

Martin settled into 22nd overall at 2:02 back while Christophe Le Mevel, slowly recovering from his hard crash in the first week, is now 38th at 4:54 off the pace.

Haussler slipped into the day’s main breakaway with four other riders with a surge at 24km into the stage. The fivesome built up an eight-minute lead, but Katusha kept them on a short leash to later set up Rodriguez for a late attack.

Haussler was pleased with the effort despite the odds. The group was finally neutralized with about 12km to go.

“It was hard up there. When it was just me and three other guys, I thought, oh, this is dumb. We had almost 4,000 meters of climbing today. It was good training,” Haussler said.

“We knew today that Katusha was going to control it all day. I am getting better now as the Vuelta goes on, I am starting to get a rhythm. The weather is cooler off a little bit. I want to be pretty fresh coming out of this Vuelta, but maybe in the third week I can have another go.”

Garmin-Cervélo’s Tyler Farrar heroically started the race despite his heavy crash in Friday’s sprint. The American sprinter wanted to at least give it a try and rode 36km before stepping out of the pedals.

“Tyler wanted to at least try to race, which is better than not trying at all,” said Garmin-Cervélo sport director Bingen Fernández.

“Luckily, he did not suffer any broken bones. A crash at that speed always causes some muscular and tissue damages. We will see how he recovers. We hope he can still race the world championships in September.”

The 66th Vuelta continues Sunday with the 183km ninth stage from Villcastin to La Covatilla summit, the second of six mountain-top finishes in this year’s race.

The longer, steadier 18.2km summit is better-suited for Martin’s style of riding, who rode to third up Sierra Nevada in stage four.

“We will have two really important days for me, that will probably decide if I am riding for GC or I will hunt for stage,” Martin said. “I also want to thank my teammates, who are riding great for me so far in this Vuelta.”