Daniel Felipe Martínez is emerging as the main leader of Ineos in the absence of Egan Bernal

Daniel Martínez wins a new title in his cycling career after winning the 2022 Tour of the Basque Country against great riders such as Remco Evenepoel, from Quick Step Alpha Vinil, Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard from Jumbo Visma.

From the first day of competition, soachuno was very attentive to staying close to the top positions and along with those who gradually consolidated themselves as the main rivals in the overall victory, which speaks of a great reading that the runner did about the Basque competition.

While his teammate Adam Yates was expected to get ahead, even the same Colombian, the Englishman had to give up his place as main leader so that Daniel would take over fighting the best result for his team Ineos Grenadiers.

Since then the whole team turned to support Martínez, which was evident in the state of form with which the Colombian took on the key moments of the race. Roglic was first in the crosshairs, who was the leader of the race until stage 4, but faced with, apparently a physical problem for Roglic, Remco took first place in the standings in stage 5 and 6, but only by 2 seconds compared to Daniel who in the stage had won the bonus after winning stage 4 against world champion Julian Alaphilippe of the Quick Step Alpha Vinyl.

Every move by Daniel Martínez at Itzulia was instrumental in achieving victory this Saturday, thus achieving his third podium so far this year with his team in European races.

The next competition was Paris Nice, where he returned to third place on the podium, while Roglic was the champion and Simon Yates, the runner-up. Now this April 9 he gets a great victory to make his third podium of the season, thus demonstrating his great conditions.

It is worth remembering that the first competition Martínez won this season was in Colombia during the National Time Trial Championships where he was for the third time the big winner in the last 4 years.

All these results open a light for Daniel in the face of leading in a grand tour this year, given that the Ineos Grenadiers team has run out of Egan Bernal due to the accident he had earlier this year on a road in Gachancipá. Bernal would be the main card to seek a new title in the Tour de France, but given what happened, the options focused on other riders such as Carapaz or Adam Yates.

In the absence of Egan Bernal, Daniel Martínez, who was his main squire in the Giro d'Italia 2021 which Bernal won, Daniel makes a great presentation with his team, thus earning an important position as team leader, at least for this season in which the leaders seem to be better distributed in relation to to the past seasons.

Although Carapaz has already completed two more seasons than Daniel and has had great results with the English team, as in 2020, 2nd place in the Vuelta España, and 3rd in the Tour de France 2021, in addition to being Olympic Road Champion for Ecuador, this season he has not shown his best version, as he has achieved only one, but no less calibre, podium in the Vuelta a Catalunya, surpassed only by the coffee grower Sergio Higuita del Bora hansgrohe.

Daniel seems to be at his best sporting level and is expected to be able to make the best use of it in the remainder of the season and even better in the most important competitions on the cycling calendar.

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