Crashes, chaos and heavy rain - João Almeida wins Itzulia Basque Country and final queen stage after battle with Enric Mas

Martin would not have climbed a few places in the GC.
every point counts in the relegation battle.

Yes ok, but then what were the exact details then, did he cross the line, did his team not ask the stewards committee if they thought it was an exceptional case? He got the time but not the ranking, not even the last ranking, which suggests it was looked at and decided but explain why you feel it wasn’t right? There are only two cases it doesn’t apply, team time trials and summit finishes, so flat or not makes no difference.

So, in the end Martin got real time on the line and actually drop a place in the GC.
the spirit of the 3km rule is to save riders that are afected by crashes or mechanicals when these events are not their fault.
Some cases where the rider is to "blame" are, for pragmatical reasons, i guess, also covered by the rule.
But when you are on the attack in a rolling terrain and you crash, alone, it doesn't make much sense to apply the rule, even if you are in the last km.
It's completely different from the situation where there's a big crash in the bunch in the last kms and you get stuck behind fallen riders, for example.