Dan Martin stays in sixth place at Tour de France

Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche finished in the main bunch on Friday's 19th stage of the Tour de France, with the peloton switching off to some extent after the day's big breakaway group got clear.

With energy running low in the Tour's final week and the crucial time trial coming up on Saturday, the peloton rolled in almost twelve and a half minutes behind the solo winner Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Dimension Data).

All of the general classification contenders were in this main bunch and so their overall standings were unaffected. Martin (QuickStep Floors) remains two minutes and 56 seconds behind race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky), staying sixth overall. Roche is 33rd overall heading into the 22.5 kilometre Marseilles time trial.

In other news, Irish riders have excelled this week in the European track championships in Portugal. Xeno Young and JB Murphy took silver medals in the junior individual pursuit and junior elimination race, while Mark Downey was third in Friday's under 23 points race.