Martínez third in Tour stage 12 + Poland

Egoi Martínez was left to bemoan a lack of cooperation in his breakaway group as he missed out on a stage win in today's 12th stage from Saint Jean de Maurienne and Annonay Davézieux.

After Rubén Pérez and Gorka Izagirre had both tried their best to infiltrate the break of the day, it was once again Egoi Martínez who succeeded in getting into the right move on the transitional stage. Sky had no interest in reeling in the group consisting of Martínez, Peraud, Millar, Kiserlovski and Gautier, and the quintet were left to play it out for the win. Martínez, perhaps a wee bit too impatient, was the first to give it a go, but had no response when Peraud and Millar moved away from the rest with approximately two clicks to go. Despite the duo ahead spending most of the time looking at each other and the guys behind them, the trio behind could never figure out how to cooperate and let a golden opportunity go begging. Martínez was seen taking most of the pulls, but an either exhausted or unwilling Gautier never really contributed, so Martínez winning yet another sprint from a small group was only good enough for third.

Post-stage, the 34-year-old said the toll of merely making the break tool its toll in the finale.

"I didn't make the break to begin with, I had to fight hard to get into the right group, and I was therefore never comfortable when it settled down", he told Cadena Cope. "The end of the stage wasn't for me with the constant change of pace, the curves, the roundabouts... I've got a diesel engine."

Speaking of the winner, Martínez was as always magnanimous in defeat.

"David Millar was the strongest. He worked hard in the break throughout, and he looked good right from the start. I've never been the first to attack earlier, so I gave it a go to see if they would let me go. The trio of us never really cooperated when Millar and Peraud were up the road. I was hoping to do well, as I have been going well in sprints from small groups of late".

Having finished almost eight minutes ahead of the pack, he rose to 18th overall.

Stage 12 results:

• (1, David Millar (Garmin-Sharp), 5:42:46)
• 3, Egoi Martínez, 0:05
• 72, Jorge Azanza, 9:08
• 121, Rubén Pérez, 11:59
• 140, Gorka Izagirre, s.t.
• 149, Pablo Urtasun, s.t.

Over in Poland, Euskaltel continued to fly under the radar. At least everyone but Pierre Cazaux (183rd at 3:25) and Adrián Sáez (190th at 4:06) finished up inside the pack, and Izagirre is now placed 15th on GC with three stages to go.

Stage four results:

• (1, Aidis Kruopis (Orica-GreenEdge), 2:43:04)
• 58, Ion Izagirre, s.t.
• 73, Alan Pérez, s.t.
• 91, Igor Antón, s.t.
• 105, Romain Sicard, s.t.
• 130, Juan José Oroz, s.t.
• 154, Miguel Minguez, s.t.
• 183, Pierre Cazaux, 3:25
• 190, Adrián Sáez, 4:06

Photo: www.fundacioneuskadi.com