Paris-Nice: The Tony Martin Experience

I may as well have wrote this before the stage started. Yes, Tony Martin won and he dominated. Actually, he wasn't even on his best in the second half of the stage but he had more than enough of a cushion built up to fall back on.

Martin put 20 seconds on 2nd place Wiggins (who looked very good today) and picked up a total of 36 on GC 2nd place Kloden.

Overall I guess Kloden can't be terribly disappointed with that result.

He barely held onto his 2nd place overall by just 3 seconds over a charging Wiggins and finished the stage in 4th. I can't think of too many riders that would be disappointed with 4th against this strong field in an ITT, and he was rewarded with a chance to hang onto his podium spot.

Wiggins was the big mover of the day, as he jumped from a cluster of riders in 10th to 3rd place overall.

I think he also has strong enough climbing legs to hang onto his podium spot. Well, that and a sizable buffer back to 4th place Rein Taaramae.

As he predicted, Richie Porte plugged in a strong ride to 3rd overall, but he was just too far back to make any GC noise. Young Americans Andrew Talansky and Tejay Van Garderen clocked in 7th and 10th respectively, and specialist Lieuwe Westra took 6th.

This is no surprise, and a good part of the reason why so many people picked Tony Martin as their favorite from the beginning (myself included). The next 2 stages can be a bit tricky, but I don't see him having any problems wrapping things up.

Stage Results

1. Tony Martin

2. Bradley Wiggins

3. Richie Porte

General Classification

1. Tony Martin

2. Andreas Kloden -36

3. Bradley Wiggins -39

4. Rein Taaramae -1:10

5. Jean-Christophe Peraud -1:14

6. Levi Leipheimer -1:29

7. Janez Brajkovic -1:32

8. Samuel Sanchez -1:37

9. Xavier Tondo -1:51

10. Bauke Mollema -1:57

11. Luis Leon Sanchez -1:58

12. Richie Porte -2:05

13. Mick Rogers -2:17

16. Frank Schleck -2:30

18. Tejay Van Garderen -3:05

20. Roman Kreuzinger -3:09

24. Jurgen Van Den Broeck -3:39

Points

Heinrich Haussler- 79

KOM

Remi Pauriol- 39

Teams

Team Radioshack

Stage 7

It's hard to call this one because of how early in the stage the hard climbing is. What I can say is that Martin shouldn't lose much, if any, time.

If I had to take a wild guess at the stage winner, I'd say Luis Leon Sanchez.