Tony Martin came close to an overall victory at the Criterium du Dauphine 2012
Tony Martin of Team Omega Pharma-Quickstep rode brilliantly during the fourth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine 2012.
The German rode brilliantly and was looking good to grab the top podium spot but had to surrender ahead of the in-form Bradley Wiggins.
Martin fell 34 seconds short of Bradley and had to settle for the second position with Michael Rogers of Team Sky holding the third position.
Wilco Kelderman of Team Rabobank, Sylvain Chavanel of Team Omega Pharma-Quickstep and Christopher Froome of Team Orica GreenEdge achieved the fourth, the fifth and the sixth positions in the respective order.
While commenting on the race he noted, "Today I had no super legs".
"It took a while to get into the rhythm of the race. At the beginning I wasn't really concentrated, but I got better”.
“I know when and why I lost, so it is OK for me. Bradley did a great race. As for me, maybe today I was a little bit tired”.
“I did a lot of training for the Tour of Belgium, and a lot of training after the race to prepare for the Tour de France".
The 27-year-old achieved the first overall spot during the Tour of Belgium along with a stage 4 victory at the race.
He occupied the second overall position at the Volta ao Algarve and fifth during the Tour of the Basque Country.
Wilco Kelderman of Team Rabobank, Luke Durbridge of Team Orica GreenEdge and Tejay Van Garderen of Team BMC were the top four young cyclists on the day.
Team Sky finished at the first position with Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step, Team Rabobank, Team BMC and Team Movistar occupied the top five teams during the stage 4 of the Criterium du Dauphine.
Tony has now jumped up to the second overall position after the stage 4 classifications with a deficit of 38 seconds on Bradley Wiggins.
Michael Rogers of Team Sky, Sylvain Chavanel of Team Omega Pharma-Quickstep and Cadel Evans of Team BMC holds the next three positions.
Martin is looking good to secure the top overall position after the final general classifications and is now eyeing the 186.5 kilometre stage 5 of the race.
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