Martinez sprints to fourth in Liege

Earlier, the Grenadiers had been reduced in numbers after illness forced Omar Fraile and Carlos Rodriguez to abandon the race. This setback was compounded by Tom Pidcock being caught in a large crash with 50 kilometres to go, which affected a large portion of the peloton. Fortunately he was able to continue and re-join his teammates in a reduced bunch.  

With the race already splitting up on the iconic La Redoute climb, Evenepoel accelerated and quickly amassed a sizeable advantage that the dwindling peloton could not make up. 

Behind, the INEOS Grenadiers contributed to the chase, with Geraint Thomas pushing the pace, until the peloton splintered again on Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons. 

Despite a small reduction in the gap to the leader, the chase group were only able to sprint for second, with Martinez narrowly missing out on a podium in Liege.  

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Dani Martinez

""It was a hard day. This morning I woke up a bit under the weather, I wasn’t feeling myself and during the stage I had stomach ache and I went to the team car several times.

"It was a hard day, but despite of all the stress, crashes and everything, I felt great on the climbs and I managed to react to all the attacks from my rivals. 

"At La Redoute, the key moment of the race, I had a mechanical and I had to stop to fix it but Remco already attacked and I had to wait for the other teams to control the situation, but Remco was really strong and stayed clear."

“It was a hard, attritional race and we were on the backfoot early, with Omar and Carlos feeling sick. Once we’d got into the race there was a big crash and luckily I was just behind it and had to pick my way through. 

“I saw Dani with his chain off, so I waited for him, got him back to the front and tried to keep him in good position for the last climb. Unfortunately Remco had a good enough lead and it stayed away. 

“All things considered, Dani came fourth and almost got on the podium but for a photo finish. We all pulled together under the circumstances and I think it was alright in the end.”