CYCLING TOUR DE FRANCE: Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche rode well on the final mountain stage yesterday, with the former netting 10th, one minute 11 seconds behind the solo winner Alejandro Valverde, and the latter being two places and 19 seconds further back.

Both of the Irish riders were with the group of main contenders on the final climb. Martin had also been in the day’s earlier break, but this was brought back by a vigilant Sky team, thus effectively ending his chances of chasing the stage victory. He was, nevertheless, able to shrug off the fatigue of being out front all day Wednesday to take that top-10 finish, and moved up to 36th in the general classification as a result.

Roche had started the stage 11th overall and was hoping to get into the top 10, but was unable to progress. He heads into today’s stage one minute, 12 seconds behind the next rider, Thibaut Pinot (FDJ BigMat), while the RadioShack Nissan rider Andreas Klöden is one minute, 11 seconds behind him.