Garmin-Sharp was struck by bad luck in Wednesday’s Ardennes Classic, the Flèche Wallonne. At the bottom of the second climb of the Mur de Huy, team leader Ryder Hesjedal punctured and had to work his way back to the leading group.

Subsequently Dan Martin also flatted at a bad moment and received a wheel from Stetina and made it back to the front again. Into the last km Fabian Wegmann made sure to place Martin perfectly for the uphill finish and Martin was going faster and faster but he ran short of asphalt and narrowly missed out on the podium, finishing 4th. After the race Martin expressed his satisfaction with his performance and the assistance he received from his teammates.

“I’m very proud with how I myself rode and the team rode today,” said Martin afterward on the Garmin-Sharp website. “Nathan Haas, in his first Flèche, guided me around perfectly for the first 175 km keeping me at the front and out of trouble. Pete Stetina was right there when I needed a wheel change and all the other guys did their bit to keep me in position.”

“I honestly would not have done anything different all day. Except the puncture, which I couldn’t believe after the bad luck of Sunday, but I kept calm and then Fabian Wegmann did an incredible job to put me into a good position at the bottom of the Muur. People say I came from far back, but I raced the climb and not the riders. I did get a bit baulked at about 250 m to go but again I finished strongly, just didn’t have the legs to follow on the steepest part but I think I judged my effort almost perfectly.”