After Stage V there was Stage 9, where the World TT champion earned the dotty jumper. In case you missed it, Stage 9 was a trip into the Vosges mountains, 170km with six categorized climbs. This was a stage for a breakaway to stay away. A large group did escape and with 152km remaining to the finish Alessandro De Marchi of Cannondale bolted off the front…followed by Tony Martin. What happened over the next few climbs was awe-inspiring and awful. Awe-inspiring because this break of two kept gaining time over the large group of hard working escapers; awful because poor Alessandro was getting worked over like no cyclist should ever get worked over. He killed himself at the front, just trying to keep Martin behind him and he killed himself again when he deserved to be resting on Tony Martin’s wheel. Alessandro was in the saddle, out of the saddle, fighting just to stay in contact. It was equally fun and painful to watch.
Tony Martin learned very early about making a successful escape. As a youth he escaped East Germany with his family. He does not fuck around when escaping. A bee stung the Cannondale rider on the hand; a welcome distraction from the beating he was taking trying to survive a ride with Martin. Besides putting De Marchi in a spot of bother on the climbs, Martin is a demon on descents and obviously horrendous on the flats. It was Mr Martin’s wild ride.
With 59km to go, as they climbed the biggest mountain of the day, Martin decided it was time to take it up a notch. One could see De Marchi’s thought bubble when it happened, “oh FFS, thank you, you broke me, are you happy now?” As they crested each climb Tony had let Alessandro collect the KOM points, yet guess who ended up in the Jersey? I’ve looked in vain for a post-race interview with De Marchi. At least he earned the the Most Combative jersey in Paris. One of Quick-Step’s directors quipped De Marchi was going to need a therapist after that ride.
How awesome is Tony “Whale Shark” Martin? He leads out Cav like a good team player. He is the World Time Trial Champion. He is hot to attempt the Hour Record, whatever the rules are. He can crush a 58 tooth chainring. He can also win a climbing stage in the Tour and pull on the dotty jumper wearing his Panzerwagen old-school cap on the podium.
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This.
All. Fucking. Day.
TM is a beast without reservations. I was reading over on Inner Ring about how he mostly uses the panzerwagon nickname for his foreign fans. Given the charged history of the German military, can't say I blame him. But between him, the gorilla, and degenkolb maybe we'll see a renaissance of German cycling?
@Owen
If the Germans don't get on board with this new generation of riders: Tony Panzerwagen, Marcel the Magnificent, Gorilla Greipel and John the 'tashman, then I give up. Greipel seems somewhat dour and old school and I'm not convinced about Degenkolb, but in the first two Germany have a couple of bona fide superstars who are incredibly good and photogenic to boot. Not a shabby combo in this image-saturated world we live in. C'mon Germany, embrace these boys and forget Ullrich et al. You haven't had this much to cheer about since Altig and early Thurau.
wtf how did I forget Kittel? Merckx.
I have German relations and they seem excited about the up and comers, so maybe there's hope.
"Tony Martin learned very early about making a successful escape. As a youth he escaped East Germany with his family. He does not fuck around when escaping."
This.
Martin is now one of my favourite riders, you can expect him to go on a long escape pretty much at any time, and I love that attitude. The day after this stage, when he drove on the front of the break for hours, then just peeled off and virtually stopped dead, that was some display of power. Definitely a huge donk in that one.
Ok, I get the excitement of the hour and all that, but when is he going to go all "Cancellara" and crush some souls at Roubaix? That gets me excited and I expect others too.
@Ccos
I was thinking that too. He should try a Spring Classic or two, especially Roubaix. But if he doesn't already enjoy those wet cobbles, if might not be for him. Still, he should be good at some of those. Lord knows he has the motor for that kind of thing. If Twiggo can make a showing, der Wagen could do better.
@wiscot
Did you see young Thurau in either the Dauphine or Tour de Swiss? He was out suffering on the climbs, trying to keep a dotty jersey. He will be someone to watch.
Here's to hoping some of the rumors are true and he begins to focus on the Classics. Certainly has the attitude and suffering tolerance to crush it.
@Gianni didn't get those this year, unfortunately. Moving and it's attendant stressors will do that.
Well, that's not entirely true. I did catch the criterium stage of the Dauphine in which a certain spider humped the shit out of a lightbulb in order to stay in front of a certain connoisseur of fine steaks.