Cannondale Garmin rider looking to get back on track for Tour de France
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Dan Martin waits for the start(Image credit: Sadhbh O'Shea)
Irishmen Philip Deignan and Dan Martin at the start(Image credit: Sadhbh O'Shea)
The podium of Dan Martin (Garmin Sharp), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Michał Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step)(Image credit: ASO)
There is little in the way of middle ground for Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) when it comes to racing. On his day he can be scintillatingly brilliant but rarely does the Irishman just meander through races without some major incident.
If he's not winning Classics or Tour stages he's picking himself up off the deck, or suffering through races with broken ribs, as he did at this year's Tour de Romandie.
Now at the Dauphiné as part of a strong Cannondale-Garmin outfit, Martin is readying himself for another crack at the Tour de France, a race where he's tasted success in the past. After a tumultuous spring campaign that ended in disappointment perhaps a quiet - even peaceful - Dauphiné is just what Martin requires.
"Now I've managed to reset," he tells Cyclingnews as we sit with him on the front lawn of the team's hotel after stage 2.
"I went away, got in some training in the mountains and now I'm ready for this race. I've not been able to train super hard because of my ribs, so there's not been that much intensity but I think that everyone is in the same boat. It just means that I'm in a good position for the Tour. I don't know where I'm at in terms of power on the climbs but we'll find out later in this race."
"The Ardennes finished off the year of hell off if you start with Belfast and the Giro last year. It's almost been a complete year of shit but I'm in the same position that I went into the Vuelta and Lombardia with. The results and form returned in spectacular fashion then, and obviously we're hoping for the same again this time."
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Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
