Mental strength is just as important as physical prowess to win on the Mûr-de-Bretagne, says Dan Martin, who won a Tour de France stage on the 'wall' in 2018.

The now retired Irishman has a history of performing on the 2km Breton climb; Martin finished second on the côte du Menez Hiez – better known as the côte de Mûr-de-Bretagne – in 2015, before he went on to win on a return visit three years later, then riding for the team now known as UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly in Caen ahead of the stage five time trial, Martin reflected on his tactics that day, when he conquered the double-digit gradients.

"It’s a very similar style climb to the stage in Rouen," Martin explained. "It’s a real head game as, when you come round the corner and just see the wall in front of you, it looks way steeper than it actually is, and that can crack some guys."

Having been held off in 2015, Martin’s victory came after he launched a powerful out-of-the-saddle attack up the inside of the front group, which caught the likes of Alejandro Valverde, Adam Yates and Geraint Thomas by surprise. He went on to win by just one second.

"I just about managed to hang on to the big chain ring, and the bigger chain ring on the front means that the torque you’re putting through the bike makes it easier to push the pedals round and you can then clip down the gears more quickly in the flatter section on the top of the climb," Martin recalled.

"I know the fashion now is to sit down and create those huge power numbers and to create that torque and push the bigger gear, whereas when I won there, and when I came second in 2015 as well, I just used a similar kind of tactic on both occasions."

In this year's edition, Tadej Pogačar ceded the race lead to Mathieu van der Poel on stage six into Vire Normandie, won by Ben Healy, but Martin said that he thought the Slovenian could look to recapture the momentum he took out of the stage he won in Rouen on the Mur, purely to land another psychological blow on Jonas Vingegaard.

"It’s a really fine balance as a GC rider currently," Martin said. "Because you’ve got guys who are counting their counters, so to speak. Every bit of energy that they can save they are doing it currently in order to think about and consider the last half of the race.

"There’s that momentum and confidence that you get from getting a good stage result – that’s the flip side of it. But the time gaps are never going to be huge on the Mûr-de-Bretagne, it’s a matter of seconds played out at the finish line.

"That was always my view that being aggressive in the first few days, like Tadej did yesterday, gives you that momentum and confidence, but it also relaxes the team because they know he’s in good condition now."

Vingegaard suffered a significant loss in the Caen time trial where he shipped more than a minute to Pogačar. Despite now having a gap to bridge, Martin backed Vingegaard to bounce back, and said his performance on stage four in Rouen proved he had the capacity to get back into the race.

"On that type of finish in Rouen, I think we always expected Tadej to be stronger," Martin said. "I think he was, but the difference wasn’t that much. But I think the Rouen stage really showed how mentally strong Vingegaard is. I could see him maybe one gear up from Tadej, his cadence was maybe a little bit higher on the final climb.

"He was then almost praying that Tadej was going to slow down at some point and I thought you could see him starting to blow. He sat down but then a second or two later Tadej sat down too. That gave him that boost to think he’s only there, I can get there. I think having the mental strength to be able to stand again just shows how much he wants this."

Dan Martin is a British-Irish former professional cyclist. Martin won stages in all three of cycling’s Grand Tours, including two at the Tour de France, and he also won Liège–Bastogne–Liège and Il Lombardia. He retired from competition at the end of the 2021 season after riding for his final team, Israel-Premier tech.

This interview is part of Cycling Weekly’s Q&A series.

What was your first bike?

Well, the very first bike I had was just a steel frame of my granddad's that I inherited and we had resprayed. I got it when I was 12, and then I didn't start using it till I was about 14. It took me a while to actually want to use it I think, because I clipped in on Boxing Day, I then probably fell over and decided I didn't want to do any cycling. I was nearly 14 when I actually ended up properly starting out riding my bike.

What’s the first race you can remember watching?

Obviously, I spent a lot of time roadside watching my Dad [Neil Martin] race. But as far as television goes, it probably actually was the Tour de France in 1993, I don't know why. I've just got this clear image I remember of the leaders going up into the mist on one mountain stage, I think it was guys like Alex Zulle and Miguel Indurain.

Did you have a particular cycling hero when you were younger?

I have always liked climbers, Marco Pantani was probably the first one that I really liked. That was just for his style of riding and stuff.

Is there one single person who has been particularly influential on you and your career in cycling?

Obviously, my Dad was there and I was surrounded by cycling more than anything, and he's the biggest fan of the sport still now. So I just inherited that love of cycling from him I guess and I just wanted to do it because of him. And then as my career went on, I came across a lot of other people in the sport, but my Dad really played a key part in getting me on the bike in the first place.

What do you think you would have ended up doing if you hadn’t become a pro?

I have no idea, I really don't know. I was pretty good at school, so I would probably have gone to university and done something, but I really don't know what it would have been. I never really had a plan B, even though I had really good A levels and other qualifications and stuff. There was never any real plan B, I think if I had ever needed one then I would have figured one out.

What’s the best place your career has ever taken you to?

I used to love going to Japan for the Japan Cup. It's a really, really lovely trip. That was always a lot of fun and just a complete culture shock in the best way. I always loved racing Lombardia as well. It's just such a beautiful area on Lake Como, it's just amazing all round there and such a special place.

What was the most significant victory during your career and why?

Liège–Bastogne–Liège was really big for me. Obviously it's such an iconic race, and to step back now and think there's probably only about 80 people who've ever won it, and I'm one of them, is pretty surreal. It's something that doesn't dawn on you at the time, you don't really have time to reflect on it.

I think the problem is, when you're in the moment in cycling, as soon as I won Liege, it was almost like a case of thinking right, on to the next race. You don't really take time to enjoy it, or you just assume it's going to happen again, that feeling of winning.

I thought I'd win it again someday, I came really close, but I never managed to. I guess you never let yourself rest on your laurels, which I guess is why I continued to be successful throughout my career, but at the same time it means you don't always enjoy the moment to the full extent at the time.

Are you into any other sports?

My Dad used to work for one of the sponsors in MotoGP, so I used to follow MotoGP avidly when I was younger and I still do now. I used to play a lot of football at school and stuff too. I've always been a fan of pretty much all sports really.

Do you still ride your bike a lot now?

Over the course of this winter, I haven't really touched my bike actually. I'm running a lot now as my wife's starting to be competitive again. I've been training with her a fair bit and I'm running nearly every day now. I'm really enjoying it, I find it's just so much more efficient time wise. We've got the kids and I've got other things going on, so finding an hour to go for a run is a lot easier than doing a two or three hour ride these days.

Chased by Pandas, Dan Martin’s autobiography of his career in professional cycling, has been nominated for the cycling book of the year prize as part of the Sunday Times Sports Book Awards. The Irishman’s book is one of half a dozen that are up for the award, the winner of which will be revealed in a ceremony held at The Oval cricket ground in London on 24 May.

‘Really happy to have made this shortlist. #chasedbypandas tried to bring something different to cycling books. Hope any of you who have read it enjoyed my take,’ Martin said on Twitter following news of his nomination.

The Irishman faces strong competition for the prestigious prize, notably from Beryl, Jeremy Wilson’s biography of Beryl Burton, which won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize last December. Alyson Rudd, the chair of the judging panel for that award, said of Wilson’s book: ‘Too few biographies focus on sports women, but this book helps to alter the balance. It is quite simply a tour de force and leaves the reader emotionally drained but also uplifted. Beryl deserved for her story to be told in style and Jeremy Wilson achieves that while also charting the more controversial elements of her extraordinary life.’

The four other books on the list are: The Break, Ineos team director Steve Cummings’ account of his 15-year racing career; Jan Ullrich, Daniel Friebe’s biography of the controversy-hit 1997 Tour de France champion; Two Wheels Good, Jody Rosen’s history and mystery of the bicycle; and Climbers, Peter Cossins’s exploration of the characteristics, feats and foibles of the sport’s kings and queens of the mountains.

Evenepoel returns to the scene of his crash

Nearly fourteen months since suffering the harrowing fall into a ravine on the descent of the Muro di Sormano that could have ended his career, Remco Evenepoel returns to Il Lombardia as a top favourite for victory once more.

Evenepoel was also a major favourite for the win prior to last year’s race, having shown sensational form in the weeks prior, and it’s been a long, arduous journey for him to go from  his long period out of racing and rehabilitating following that crash, back to being a top contender. 

Thankfully, his form in the last few weeks appears to confirm that his prodigious talent remains undiminished. He won the Coppa Bernocchi one-day race with a trademark solo attack in the rain on Monday, continuing a run of consecutive top-five finishes in all the races he’s competed in since the European Championships last month (the only exception being at the Worlds road race in Flanders, where he instead sacrificed his undeniably strong legs in service of Belgian team-mate Wout van Aert).

Given what happened last edition, riding here could be as much a mental challenge as a physical one, although he won’t return to the descent on which he fell, as this year’s route is significantly different from last year. 

Despite the change, this is still a challenging parcours worthy of Il Lombardia, featuring 4,500 meters of elevation gain, and one that will pose all the challenges of endurance and climbing that the race is famous for. Last year’s edition was Evenepoel’s first Monument, and was supposed to be the moment he showed what he could do at the highest level; instead, having not ridden a Monument since then, this year’s edition could instead be his watershed moment. 

Alaphilippe looking to show off rainbow stripes in style

Despite the races' close proximity in the calendar, and tendency to suit a similar kind of rider, there have not been many riders to successfully pull-off a World Championships and Il Lombardia double in recent years. You have to go all the way back to 2006 for the last time a rider in the rainbow stripes was triumphant here, 

Now, another Deceuninck - Quick-Step rider, Julian Alaphilippe, will attempt to do the same. Although he’s only ridden Il Lombardia three times in his career, it’s a race that should suit him well, and he wasn’t second behind Vincenzo Nibali on his last appearance in 2017. The big question is whether he can carry the sensational form that saw him defend his World title a week and a half ago, or if the huge efforts made in making all those attacks will take its toll? His under-par showing at Milano-Torino on Wednesday suggests the latter might be the case. 

The last climb of Bergamo Alta, crested just 3km from the finish and featuring steep gradients, certainly looks tailored made for another of his punchy accelerations, but the race is already likely to have been ignited and in bits long before then, what with the longer, more difficult climbs that precede it. The 9km Passo di Ganda, crested 32km from the finish, looks an ideal place for selections to form, but things could kick off as early as 90km from the finish, when they begin ascending the Dossena climb.

Alaphilippe will form part of a fearsome duo with Remco Evenepoel, alongside other quality teammates like João Almeida (who looked great at Milano-Torino, finishing third), Mauri Vansevenant and Andrea Bagioli, and their strategy looks set to be a hyper-aggressive one. “Together with my team-mate Alaphilippe, I hope to provide a spectacle,” Evenepoel has said, and given how early into the Worlds Alaphilppe was attacking, and how far out Evenepoel made his race-winning move at Coppa Bernocchi, you’d expect that “spectacle” to involve some bold moves. 

Evenepoel has a much more harmonious relationship with Alaphilippe and his other trade team-mates than he does with the national Belgian team (who are still bickering about what happened in Flanders almost two weeks on), and together they could make this a race to remember. 

Pogačar hungry for more success

It’s testament to Tadej Pogačar’s hunger for success that he’s still riding this deep into the season, having won the yellow jersey almost three months ago. 

Often, the rider who wins the Tour de France takes the rest of the season off, feeling the understandable need for physical and mental rest. Not Pogačar. Since defending his title, he’s taken bronze at the Olympics, competed in the European and World Championships, and is this week taking part in the Italian semi-classics that lead up to Il Lombardia. 

Having already won Liège-Bastogne-Liège in the sprint, victory on Saturday would see Pogačar become the first rider to win the Tour de France at two Monuments in the same season since Eddy Merckx in 1975. Once you start challenging Eddy Merckx’s statistics, you know you’re on the brink of something special.

He appears to be finding the form to do so, too. He fired a warning shot to all of his rivals with a fearsome ride at Tre Valli Varesine on Tuesday, shocking everyone with an attack over 100km from the finish, and still managing to sprint for third-place despite later suffering a puncture. 

He’ll also form part of a talent-filled UAE Team Emirates line-up, which has multiple cards to play — Marc Hirschi is another attacking option, Diego Ulissi could keep his quick sprint finish in reserve, and Davide Formolo could attack in tandem with Pogačar, as he did to finish second at Tre Valli Varesine. 

Surrounded by such talent, Pogačar won't be weighed down by the pressure of being the team’s sole leader, and will have a licence to pick his moments to attack— which will surely strike fear into everyone else riding. 

A classic for the climbers

As well as the Autumnal slot on the calendar (re-installed after last year’s rearrangements to August) that gives it the nickname ‘Race of the Falling Leaves’, the other thing that makes Il Lombardia distinct from most other Classics is its suitability for climbers. 

The difficulty of its parcours is reflected in its list of former winners, who tend to be better known for their climbing skills and Grand Tour pedigree than as Classics riders; recent examples being Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Victorious), Esteban Chaves (BikeExchange) and Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation).

None of the aforementioned appear to have the form to win again, meaning a new Il Lombardia champion is likely to be crowned. Right now, the man most likely is Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), who has been on scintillating form this week, first winning the Giro dell’Emilia on Saturday, then Milano-Torino on Wednesday. We all know how difficult the Slovenian is to stop when in form like this, and with a super-strong Jumbo-Visma team featuring the likes of Jonas Vingegaard, George Bennett and Steven Kruijswijk to back him up, he looks well set to add a second monument to his Liège-Bastogne-Liège victory from last year.

As one of the world’s best climbers, Roglič will have no problem with the quantity of uphill kilometres in Lombardy, but this will pose a stern test for Classics stars like Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and the on-form Benoît Cosnefroy (Ag2r-Citroên), who prefer shorter, sharper efforts than the longs climbs of this race.

Instead, this is a race that suits Britain’s Adam Yates and Canada’s Michael Woods, both of whom have found excellent form with top-five finishes at Giro dell’Emilia and Milano-Torino, while Grand Tour stars who aren’t seen much in classics like Alexander Vlasov (Astana-PremierTech), Mikel Landa, Jack Haig (both Bahrain-Victorious), Nairo Quintana (Arka-Samsic), Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-Nippo) and Simon Yates (BikeExchange) could also be in the mix. 

Dan Martin bows out at the scene of one of his great triumphs

Seven years ago at Il Lombardia, Dan Martin took a group of some of this era’s best Classics riders by surprise, launching an attack on the finishing straight while the others prepared to sprint. Their hesitancy was his gain, as the Irishman soloed the final meters to the line to take the victory. 

His win the year before at Liège-Bastogne-Liège might be more famous, if only for the memorable image of a fan dressed as a panda running behind him on the finishing climb, but this was every bit as impressive and prestigious, and made him one of only eleven riders in the last decade to have won more than one Monument.  

Add to that his exploits in Grand Tours (all of which he has both won stages at and finished in the top overall) and stage races (including overall victories at the Tours of Catalunya and Poland), it’s fair to say that his has been one of the best careers of this generation — a career that will come to an end on Saturday, following Martin’s announcement that he’s retiring from the sport.

Other riders as crash prone as Martin might be remembered more for that than their achievements, but it’s testament to Martin’s success and longevity that the enduring image of him will be of his hunched, gangly frame launching one of his countless attacks on an uphill. 

>>> Decathlon returns to professional cycling as Cofidis kit sponsor

Does he have one more big win in him? His form certainly looked good at Giro dell’Emilia, where he finished sixth, and his failure to post a good result at Milano-Torino was down to a late mechanical and being caught out in the crosswinds rather than bad legs. Some of Martin’s best moments have come when riding as an underdog, so a fairy-tale end to his stellar career isn’t out of the question. 

Dan Martin laughs when I point out to him that the enduring image of his soon-to-be-over career will be of a man dressed in a panda suit running alongside him as he won the 2013 Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

“It was crazy, wasn’t it,” he tells Cycling Weekly. “It’s funny how one moment became so iconic. After I announced I was retiring, someone asked why there was no sign of a panda on the press release.

“Mind you, I definitely milked it afterwards. And I’m glad I did because one thing I learned is that you have to savour the best moments while they last. I thought I’d win another Liège, and probably could have had a hat-trick, but it was just the one in the end.”

It’s extremely unfair that as Martin prepares to bring his illustrious 14-year career to a close, it is an animal costume that still forms such a large part of his biography.

Midway through another enjoyable, revealing chat with Martin - they have always been like that, whether before a stage, on the rollers after one, or on the phone -  we reverse roles and I ask him to be the journalist, the one to describe the career of Dan Martin, born in 1986 and winner of 22 professional wins.

After 10 seconds of genuinely thinking, trying to articulate his thoughts, he responds: “I’m useless at this stuff. I’m proud, of course, it’s gone bloody quick, but I don’t like looking back, and I’m not sure I ever will do.”

If he ever does allow himself to reflect, he’ll see a palmarès that includes wins at each of the Grand Tours, Liège, Il Lombardia, a fourth-place overall at the 2020 Vuelta a España, and Volta a Catalunya title.

I ask him if he feels like he has received the credit his performances deserve, admired as he should be. Battling to be appreciated has been a constant side note in his cycling story.

“It’s nice for Cycling Weekly to mention that because I remember as a 16-year-old fighting to get my name in your junior results. You’d never give me column inches!” he laughs.

“I’m not egotistical, but I did see on Twitter that only six or seven riders have ever won stages in all the Grand Tours and Liège and Il Lombardia. The only other current rider is [Philippe] Gilbert and Eddy Merckx is also there.

“To be alongside those names… well, I’ve never thought about it before, but that’s potentially why I have stayed competitive for so long because you can’t afford to rest on your laurels or think too much about what you’ve done. 

“I won races almost every year. My first Grand Tour win was in 2011 and then I completed the set at the Giro this year. That’s a long time winning big races. I feel like I’ve had a solid career, I’ve achieved more than I could ever have dreamed of.”

Honest - he chuckles that he only announced his retirement now because he wouldn't have been able to keep it a secret at the Tour of Britain -  Martin talks about how he has “never been disappointed”, and how winning was never the most important thing for him; performance was the priority.

Triumphing in the Giro this May, though, left him feeling “quite tall because it was the moment I realised, when it home, that I had had an impact on people’s lives. Not just the other riders and staff but people sending me messages on social media.

“That was gratifying and it make me happy. It’s a pleasure giving people a special feeling. For me I was just like ‘yeah, great, I’ve won’, it was bizarre, but for others it was huge. That was the moment when I thought it was maybe time to call it a day.”

Now aged 35, Martin has decided to abandon the life of 200 days in hotels, strict diets and attempting to compete with a young generation who are intent on rewriting conventional wisdom and resetting the record books.

“I wanted to stop before I stopped enjoying it. I can feel the life of a cyclist is wearing on me," he confesses.

“I’ve been training as hard as ever, and I’m still loving it now, but the racing demands that you are at 100 percent commitment 24/7 and nearly all year round. 

“The sport’s more professional now, everyone has their nutritions dialled in, and the last few years it has consumed me. I realised I needed to diversify my life, including for my mental health. I can’t keep missing out on normal life with the family.”

The Irishman says that he has lived like a monk in the past two years to be able to challenge in Grand Tours, and he rode four in the space of 11 months between August 2020 and July 2021.

While part of the sport’s growth and adaptation to technological advances, he has been dejected by the peloton’s reliance of numbers. “My style of racing has been tempered by how structured and professional teams are now,” he adds.

“The Vuelta today [stage 20] was crazy, all hell broke loose, but generally the human element is being lost by coaches telling pros what to do, nutritionists telling you what to eat and when, the coaches all dialled in on the power side of things.

“No-one makes mistakes in racing anymore and it was the human element that I found fun. It’s explains a bit why I have come to this decision.”

In the final month of his career before he devotes more attention to helping athletes invest in growth companies as part of his role with Rubix Ventures, Martin is riding the Tour of Britain, the World Road Race Championships and finishing at Il Lombardia, the sight of his memorable 2014 victory.

“It’s a beautiful race: I remember watching it as a kid and I fell in love with it," he says. "The year I won it was probably the easiest course I have ever ridden the race on though!”

He’s open to remaining involved with cycling, but before then has to make his training of the past year, and all the sacrifices that come with it, count towards something else.

“It’s an incredible situation that I’m in in that whatever I do now, good or bad, people won’t remember me for that,” he says. “Unless I win Lombardia again, of course.”

That’d be the fairy-tale ending to one of this century’s finest racers.

Dan Martin has announced his retirement from professional cycling.

The 35-year-old Irishman has called time on his career after 14 seasons in which he scored 22 professional wins, including two Monuments and five Grand Tour stage victories.

Martin, who currently rides for Israel Start-Up Nation, said the decision to retire had been "challenging and complex" but that he came to the realisation racing was no longer "fun" for him. He said earlier in the year at the Giro d'Italia that "cycling is not worth the risk" after battling through a hazardous gravel stage at the Italian Grand Tour.

"After 14 seasons as a professional cyclist, I have decided to call it a day," Martin said.

"Though this huge decision has taken much thought, I feel that the time is right to move on as I want to achieve so many other things in life.

"In some ways, deciding to stop has been challenging and complex; it's perhaps one of the biggest and most important decisions I have ever made; and in other ways, it's been easy. Though I am still competitive, I've realised that racing has lost the fun element: the whole reason I race in the first place.

"I still love cycling and feel privileged to have called racing bikes, something I have relished since I was a kid, my 'job.' Through cycling, I have met so many amazing people who have enriched my life and shared some incredible experiences with them.

"Giving 100% to what I do has always been how I operate. Though I could continue racing for a few years to come, and for many, this would seem like the obvious thing to do; I am at a point where I'm ready to take on some exciting new challenges in life."

Martin turned professional with Jonathan Vaughter's Team Garmin-Chipotle in 2008 and remained with the team through its various incarnations until 2015. In that time he took both of his major overall stage race victories, the 2010 Tour of Poland and the 2013 Volta a Catalunya. He also scored the first two of his five Grand Tour stage wins with the team at the 2011 Vuelta a España and the 2013 Tour de France.

It was as a one-day racer that Martin impressed most with Garmin, winning the 2013 Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the 2014 Il Lombardia, having finished second at the 2011 Il Lombardia and second at the 2014 Fléche Wallonne.

Martin then moved to Etixx-Quick-Step in 2016 where he spent two seasons, though suffered a relative dry spell by his standards, taking three wins, the most notable a stage at the Volta a Catalunya in 2016. 

He roared back at the Grand Tours with a stage victory atop Mûr de Bretagne at the 2018 Tour de France while riding for UAE Team Emirates, before spending the final two years of his career at Israel Start-Up Nation, where he flourished with stage wins at the Vuelta a España in 2020 and the Giro d'Italia in 2021.

It was with Israel Start-Up Nation that Martin also took the best Grand Tour overall result of his career, fourth at the 2020 Vuelta, finishing 2-43 behind winner Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma). Prior to that his best overall result was sixth at the 2017 Tour de France.

Martin says the end of his racing career is not the end of his life on the bike, explaining that in recent years he has found interests outside of cycling that he'll focus on once he retires, as well as spending more time with his family. 

His next race will be the Tour of Britain, which begins on Sunday (September 5), though it's not yet confirmed where his last race will be.

"What next? I will always be a cyclist; I won't hang up my wheels, just my race number," Martin said.

"During the last few off-seasons and when I've had time outside of training and racing, I have found a new sense of purpose and fun in developing companies and working within businesses. This interest led to Rubix Ventures, a company I co-founded with trusted contacts, to help athletes invest in exciting growth companies.

"I'm also looking forward to being more present as a father and husband at home and doing some simple things that are not compatible with the requirements of a cycling career, like going for a run with my wife.

"With the finish line in view, I've dug into training over the last few weeks and am looking forward to having an impact in my final few races and hopefully ending this period of my life in style."

"Those first few days it was also quite nice not to be involved with the stress," says Dan Martin. "I think everybody underestimates how much energy you save not being in that fighting position every day in the front and not being involved in the sprint finishes. Yeah, hopefully, it pays off."

Dan Martin is at the Tour de France for a stage win, which would be Israel Start-Up Nation's first. His Tour starts on stage eight as the race enters the Alps and finishes on stage 18 when the peloton conquers the Pyrenees. It's mountain stages or nothing.

"Everything has gone to plan so far, which has been a bit boring, to be honest," Martin laughs. " Because I've just been not racing. It's a new experience for me, racing the Tour like this, just saving as much energy as possible. It's strange, not having that mental concentration [that comes] with being in the GC fight all the time."

Martin spent the first week staying out of trouble and getting the legs going after the Giro d'Italia, where he won a stage. Now, with the race finely poised and, on yesterday's evidence, Ineos and Jumbo-Visma seemingly unwilling to bend the peloton to their will while UAE Team Emirates being unable to, there should be ample breakaway opportunities.

>>> 'It was a bit boring in the beginning & all of a sudden we were racing all day': Mathieu van der Poel didn't plan to join Tour de France stage seven breakaway

Martin said he had a look at potentially going on the offensive on the Mûr-de-Bretagne stage but didn't have the legs, and was going to see yesterday whether he could try something but didn't fancy burning his matches before these first two proper climbing days.

"There are a lot of mountain stages in this race so it's possible the breakaway goes to the finish," Martin adds. "Probably my Tour starts [on stage eight] and finishes on stage 18. We'll see what we've got."

Dan Martin has been announced as the next man on the team for Israel Start-Up Nation at the 2021 Tour de France.

This will be Martin's second Grand Tour of the season after putting in a strong performance at the Giro d'Italia where he took a stage win and 10th overall.

The Irish rider will be a vital rider for the team's leader, Michael Woods, who comes into the Tour in fine form in the mountains with multiple top results. Four-time winner Chris Froome has already been announced as road captain for the squad.

>>> Mark Cavendish: 'I've packed a suitcase for the Tour de France'

In a team press release, Martin said: "With the right balance of training and recovery, I think having done the Giro can be beneficial, rather than a disadvantage.

"Together with Paulo Saldanha from PowerWatts, I feel like we found that right balance very well.

“I took training a little bit easier after the Giro, and I have done more intensity over the last few bits of training. I feel recovered and ready to race,"

It was all going very well for Martin at the Giro, he looked to have very solid form and was in the fight for the overall until the race reached the gravel roads of Tuscany when he lost a huge amount of time to Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and co. He managed a good race after that and got into the top 10 in the end as well as taking stage 17 up to Sega di Ala.

Martin, who has won a stage in all three Grand Tours, will be eyeing one particular stage where he has finished in first and second in the past, that is stage two on the Mûr de Bretagne.

"Racing my ninth Tour de France is something I was planning from the beginning of the season and I am happy that I am racing it, especially as it brings me back to the Mûr," Martin said.

However, Martin will come up against some of the best punchers on the planet with the likes of world champion, Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) and Grand Tour debutant Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), who are both searching for stage wins.

Two time Monument winner, Martin has taken two stage wins at the Tour; one in 2018 on the Mûr and another on a medium mountain stage to Bagnéres de Bigorre back in 2013, where now team-mate Chris Froome took his first Tour overall victory.

Martin joins a squad that includes four-time winner, Froome, who comes back to the race for the first time in two year's after his horrendous crash at the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2019 where he broke multiple bones.

Along with Froome and Woods, Israel Start-Up Nation have also announced Israeli champion, Omer Goldstein who will be looking for breakaway opportunities. The rest of the team is not yet known but riders such as Sep Vanmarke, Daryl Impey, Patrick Bevin and Rudy Barbier and many more are available to make a well-rounded team.

Dan Martin said he shook his head at the finish line of stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia because he didn’t believe the stage victory was happening.

The Irishman capped off a tumultuous race for his Israel Start-Up Nation team with a memorable stage victory, winning on Sega di Ala from the breakaway. 

Martin now has a full set of Grand Tour stage wins, adding the Giro to his tally of two Tour de France victories and two in the Vuelta a España. 

Speaking after the finish, Martin said: “The shake of the head there at the end showed I really didn’t believe it was happening. The race has been a rollercoaster for us as a team. 

“Our spirit has always been amazing. We’ve always had a great team atmosphere and that showed this morning. We had a plan to put me in the breakaway and everybody worked for that, everybody played a part in this. I didn’t think it was going to happen for a bit with the strong headwind, it killed the speed in the breakaway and it killed our legs, but somehow I managed to hold on.”

Israel Start-Up Nation have had a bittersweet Giro d’Italia, after they lost their first rider Krists Neilands after the finish of the opening day, when he crashed on his way to the team hotel.

The squad then held the maglia rosa for a brief period with Alessandro De Marchi, before the Italian suffered serious injuries in a crash and was forced to abandon. 

Alex Dowsett then left the race, as Martin’s general classification hopes also collapsed during the course of the race.

But the Israel WorldTour squad had reason to celebrate again after stage 17, as Martin made it into the day’s breakaway, went solo on the final climb and held off the surging GC group behind to win the stage.

>>> Egan Bernal: If I win the Giro d'Italia with one second or two minutes for me it would be the same 

He said: “That’s what I came here for, to try and win a stage.

“I knew today was one of the last opportunities. I knew with the time I lost the day before the rest day it was possible to go in the breakaway, to do it is incredible.  

Dan Martin says that it wasn't worth taking the risks needed to stay with the front group on the gravel of stage 11 in the Giro d'Italia 2021.

Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) lost over six minutes to the pink jersey of Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and slipped out of the top 10 in the general classification on the road to Montalcino. 

The Irishman spoke to GCN after stage 11: "I told my wife this morning that I won't crash, so for me personally cycling is not worth the risk.

>>> Simon Yates says riding Strade Bianche earlier this year helped him on stage 11 of the Giro d'Italia 2021

"I had guys crashing all around me on the first section [of gravel] so I just did my own pace, I nearly came back but my licence is road cycling so it's not my thing. Fair play to the guys who are at the front, but I just didn't want to take the risk today and that's it.

"The cycling fan in me thinks this is a beautiful stage but yeah it was on an unpredictable road surface and I don't have much experience on that particular terrain. No excuses just didn't feel like taking the risks."

Martin now sits 18th overall after dropping 10 places in the overall standings, leaving him 7-06 down on Bernal in pink.

Martin said: "Personally, I was a bit too relaxed. Everyone was battling for positions; I got a few pushes and lost my head for a while. My team-mates did amazing by bringing me back to the second peloton, from there we nearly bridged the gap to the front."

Stage 12 heads back to the Apennines where the race takes on another tough hill stage that takes on four categorised climbs over the 212km stage from Siena to Bagno di Romagna and plenty more days of racing to gain back some time.

Dan Martin is set to lead his Israel Start-Up Nation squad into battle for the overall title at the Giro d'Italia 2021 and he comes into the race with a lot of confidence.

Martin has slowly been building his form up for a tilt at the Giro and looked to be in very good form at his last race, the Tour of the Alps. The two-time Monument winner was right up in the podium spots going into the penultimate day but a couple of crashes on the descent to the line meant he plummeted down to 15th in the general classification.

He hasn't managed to pull off a win as of yet this season but did manage third behind Simon Yates (BikeExchange) and Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) on stage two of the Tour of the Alps, beating Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech) and Jefferson Cepeda (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec), all of whom are riding the Giro.

>>> Peter Sagan thanks team for ‘continued support’ amid contract uncertainty

Martin said ahead of the Giro: "At the end of last season, I decided it was time for a new challenge and I was really excited to do the Giro d’Italia. This is a course that really suits me.

"I know that I’m stronger than I’ve ever been right now – both mentally and physically. My fourth place overall in the Vuelta last year was a big stepping stone to becoming more confident in doing well in the GC.

"Obviously, winning a stage is also a big goal. I have two in the Tour de France and two in the Vuelta a España and to complete the set of Grand Tour victories is a big ambition of mine."

Martin looked particularly solid throughout last year's Vuelta until the final week where he started to lose time to his podium rival, Hugh Carthy (EF-Nippo) who eventually took third thanks to some fantastic rides in the mountains.

Israel Start-Up Nation sports director, Niki Sørensen said: "The main goal for us is to do a top result in the GC with Dan.

"He is in great shape and he will have full support from the team to reach his and our goals. However, we will also aim for stage wins as we have a team that can play a part in all terrains in this race."

The other riders who are in the team to support Martin and also seek stage wins are a stage winner from last year's race Alex Dowsett, very solid climber Alessandro De Marchi, Latvian puncher Krists Neilands, Israeli rider Guy Niv, sprinter Davide Cimolai, time triallist Mathias Brändle and all-rounder Patrick Bevin.

The Giro d'Italia starts with an 8.6km time trial around the city of Turin on May 8 and finishes three weeks later with another time trial into Milan.

Dan Martin will make his return to the Giro d’Italia this year, after he crashed out of the Grand Tour in 2014. 

The Israel Start-Up Nation leader will be riding the 2021 edition of the Italian Grand Tour, having last competed seven years ago when the race started in Northern Ireland.

Irishman Martin left the 2014 Giro after a brutal crash in the stage one team time trial.

The 34-year-old said: “It feels like unfinished business there as I guess everybody knows the story. I arrived at the start in Belfast in excellent form and crashed out halfway through the TTT in stage one. It was tough for me to watch the race that year, but I have always been a huge fan of the [Giro].”

The 2021 edition will be Martin’s third time starting the Giro after 2010 and 2014, as he said the race has always clashed with his goals in the Ardennes Classics and the Tour de France.

But this year Martin will be targeting the general classification with full support from his team, after he finished fourth overall in the Vuelta a España last season.

He is also expected to form an important part of the team’s Tour de France squad. 

ISN team manager Kjell Carlstrom said: “This year’s Giro d’Italia should, on paper, suit Dan and his style of racing quite well, and it will be very interesting to see how things go as there are certainly many contenders, 

"Dan will be surrounded by a squad that can support him both on flat and hilly terrain.

“We believe he can perform well in both Grand Tours [Giro and Tour].” 

Martin’s  fourth-place finish in last year’s Vuelta was his best ever result in a three-week race,  as he was also able to bring his tally of Grand Tour stage wins to four - two in the Tour de France and two in the Vuelta. 

>>> Mathieu van der Poel says he ‘doesn’t draw any conclusions for the Tour of Flanders’ after struggling in Dwars door Vlaanderen

He said: “The course looks good for the strong team who will start alongside me in Torino. I can’t wait for the opportunity to go for a stage win in Italy, and to try to complete my set of Grand Tour stage victories. Italy is a country I love with roads that I have enjoyed considerable success on. It feels like I am discovering a new race – like I’m a neo-pro again!” 

Dan Martin says riding alongside Chris Froome and Mike Woods at Israel Start Up Nation can only be a good thing, as the team grows in strength for 2021. 

Irishman Martin is now racing his second season with the Israeli WorldTour team, having been the squad’s sole Grand Tour leader last season.

But as ISN continues to grow after its inaugural WorldTour season in 2020, Martin will now share leadership with four-time Tour de France winner Froome and three-week contender Mike Woods. 

Speaking from the team’s training camp in Girona, Spain, 34-year-old Martin said: “It's never a bad thing to have team-mates by your side in the final of races, to be surrounded by the strong riders that we now are in this team.

“It just gives me confidence. I know how much I can learn from guys like Chris and Mike. The guys who are in this team now, it's really about sharing knowledge and we can learn from each other and that way we become a stronger team together. 

“There's no room for me to sit here and talk about personal ambition. It's about what's best for the team, and we're going to work together in the best way possible to get results.” 

Martin, a former winner of Il Lombardia and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, spent two seasons with UAE Team Emirates, but was disappointed to leave the team without winning a race in 2019 - only the second winless season of his career.  

Last season Martin came back into form during the 2020 Vuelta a España, winning ISN’s second Grand tour stage of the year and finishing fourth overall in Madrid.  

Woods, who has emerged as one of the one of the best climbers in the world in recent seasons, is joining the team from EF Pro Cycling and is expected to be a serious contender in the hilly Classics and an outsider in the Grand Tours.

The Canadian, also 34, said: “I'm really excited to be racing with Dan. When I first came into the sport a lot of people compared me to Dan and it's an honour for me to be racing with him. I think there's a lot of information and a lot of skills I can learn from him. He's just been so consistent over the years.”

Woods added that he hopes to support Martin in the same way fellow-Candian Ryder Hesjedal did during Martin’s 2013 Liège win. 

Israel Start-Up Nation manager Kjell Carlström, a former team-mate of Chris Froome, also has the challenge of balancing the ambitions of his star riders. 

>>> Mavic will not provide neutral service at the Tour de France for first time since 1977

On the Froome and Martin partnership, Carlström said: “It's always good to have numbers, so that's clear. And I think both are very reasonable guys, they respect each other and they also respect the orders from the team. And I think if you see at all Grand Tours, contender teams they most of the time you have multiple guys competing for Grand Tours.

“I would also actually add another guy into that mix, Mike Woods , and also who knows what our younger guys can do, and how much they can develop - I'm thinking for example about Carl Fredrik Hagen. 

“It's not just about 2021, it's also about new guys, younger guys following in the footsteps of the more experienced guys.”

Dan Martin has said that he is looking forward to being on the same team as Chris Froome in the 2021 season and hopes that it will lift his team to greater success in the future.

Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) has spent a lot of time in the peloton at the Vuelta a España chatting to his soon-to-be team mate, Chris Froome (Ineos Grenadiers) with Martin amazed that Froome is even riding his bike following his horrific crash at the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2019.

“We've talked every day this week in the peloton," Martin said in a press conference on the Vuelta rest day. "The fact that he is even on the bike this year after his crash is amazing. I think he's going to progress so much in this race.

>>> Vuelta a España 2020: Check out Chris Froome’s one of a kind Pinarello Dogma F12

“I can't wait to actually race on the same team with him. He's a real presence and will inspire everybody. The team is going to step up another level next year.

"It's been on such a steep learning curve so far, from a small Continental team to now a WorldTour team. Now, with signing the best rider of this generation, I feel like it's really exciting to be a part of that.”

Froome is coming to the team as the main leader for the Tour de France and has hand-picked riders to support him with Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) and Michael Woods (EF Pro Cycling) being the highest profile of those riders to join the team with him 2021.

Irishman Martin is hopeful that Froome's arrival with the other new signings will mean that by having riders like the seven-time Grand Tour winner in the team less experienced riders will be able to really flourish.

The four-time Grand Tour stage winner is flying high in the general classification at the Vuelta a España 2020, sitting in third overall at 20 seconds behind leader, Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) heading into stage seven.

He has been full of praise for his team-mates, most of which are making their Grand Tour debuts, who have supported him through the first week of the race, setting him up for victory on stage three.

Omer Goldstein is the one Israeli rider in the team at the Vuelta after Guy Sagiv and Guy Niv went to ride the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia.

“Omer has done a great job here," Martin said. "He rode at the front yesterday and he's very competent in the peloton. He's a really good kid to have around.

“These guys are young, perhaps not young in age but in experience. [Rory] Sutherland, Reto [Hollenstein] and myself are telling them what to do on a rest day. They've never done a rest day before! It's things like that. They have that wide-eyed enthusiasm and obviously they have no idea how they will feel in the third week. We haven't broken it to them yet that it's going to be terrible.

“But it's nice to see that enthusiasm going into the race and that hunger for success and it's a really great atmosphere. We're racing with fun and a smile on our faces.”

Martin doesn't expect to have many more chances to take stage wins as most of the stages remaining suit sprinters or the breakaway with a few big mountain summit finishes along the way.

“It depends on the opportunities, but I think a breakaway will decide a lot of the stages ahead. But who knows? If I have good legs and the opportunity comes then of course I'll go for a stage, but the focus is on the GC and we'll see how far we can go with that.”

How hurt is Dan Martin?

What had been an uneventful day in the GC race threatened to become a race-ending one for Dan Martin at the end, when he crashed on the uphill to the finish.

The Irishman did however manage to remount after not too long, and didn’t appear to have sustained any serious injuries from the fall — although we can’t know for sure just yet.

While it’s true that Dan Martin has an unfortunate history of crashing — to the extent that he’s even already had a high-profile fall on an uphill finish like this, when he crashed on the final corner of the 2014 Liège-Bastogne-Liège) — the Vuelta incident was a simple case of bad luck. If anything, the 34-year-old had done a very good job to position himself where he needed to be in the finale, right towards the front of the peloton, and just happened to be unfortunate that the rider in front of him hit the deck.

The question now is what, if any, the damage the fall has done to Martin — and we’ll probably get an answer on stage six in the mountains, where there will be nowhere for Martin to hide and nurse whatever injuries he might have sustained. Given the flying form he’s been on so far this week, it would be a real shame if this crash does end up having an adverse effect on his overall chances.

Crash controversially neutralises time gaps

The commissaires had a tricky call to make at the end of the stage. After little of note happening among the GC riders for 99 per cent of the day, everything suddenly burst into life on the short uphill rise to the finish, with Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) going down in a crash just moments before Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) attacked out of the peloton.

Roglič managed to open up a gap and finish a few seconds ahead of everyone else, leaving the commissaires a dilemma — should Martin (who went down within the three-kilometre threshold that the rules say negate time losses) be given the same time as Roglič, or as one of the trailing groups behind him?

After a delay at the end of the stage, it was eventually revealed that they had decided not just to give Martin and the other fallers the same time as Roglič, but for everyone in the peloton, negating Roglič’s small time gains.

It was a big reprieve not just for Martin, but also Hugh Carthy (EF Pro Cycling), who had been caught out by Roglič’s move and stood to lose seventeen seconds.

Roglič may have other ideas about whether or not it was the fair decision, however, given that the crash had little bearing on his attack. This one is likely to rumble on as a talking point.

Tim Wellens ends his 2020 drought

No-one at the Vuelta a España this week has tried harder to win a stage than Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal), and on stage five the Belgian’s efforts paid off as he defeated Guillame Martin (Cofidis) and Thymen Arensman (Sunweb) to take victory.

Having already gone out on the attack on both the opening two stages, Wellens again went up the road during the frantic beginning of today’s racing, although the break he found himself in appeared to have no hope when GC contender Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) infiltrated it.

Resolutely, however, he and Arensman attacked Kuss and the rest of the breakaway in an attempt to keep their chances alive, and, later being joined by Martin, were justified in their resolve as the peloton eased up and allowed them to contest for the stage.

Wellens has had to wait unusually long for this win. Normally a prolific winner who has claimed victory in every season since 2014, the Belgian was without a win this season both before and after lockdown, with a training ride crash ahead of a planned Tour de France appearance disrupting things.

He’s clearly rediscovered his form for the Vuelta, however, and can breathe a sigh of relief at having finally brought an end to his drought.

Sepp Kuss makes a nuisance of himself

By sneaking out of the peloton towards the start of the day and attempting to form part of the day’s breakaway, Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) was the most unpopular rider of the day.

By getting himself into the break, the American managed to frustrate both his breakaway companions, who knew that his presence essentially sounded the death knell for their chances of being allowed to make it to the finish and contest the stage, and the peloton, who now faced a chase in order to bring him back in.

Ultimately Kuss’ move was relatively short-lived, with Ineos Grenadiers reeling him in on Alto de Vio about 70km from the finish, it did suggest that Jumbo-Visma are adopting a different strategy to that used at the Tour de France.

In France, Kuss stuck pretty much always at Roglič's side, used as a pace-setter on the final climbs, but here already he has gone out on the attack a few times on the climbs this week.

While he remains in sixth place at just 44 seconds behind his teammate in the red jersey, it seems Jumbo-Visma will use Kuss as a potential GC threat, and possibly even as a co-leader. It’s certainly making for exciting racing so far.

What were Total Direct Energie doing?

Stage five was always likely to be one for the breakaway, and that did indeed seem the most likely scenario once Kuss was caught and Wellens, Martin and Arensman remained up the road with a gap of over four minutes.

However, wildcard team Total Direct Energie did not see it that way, and set about making the pace on the final climb of the day, with the apparent intention of bringing them back.

At least, that’s what we assumed they were doing. It was difficult to gauge the team’s tactics, as they had neither an obvious candidate for the stage win, nor any GC rider hoping to gain time — their highest ranked rider, Julien Simon, was already nearly twenty minutes down in 38th overall.

>>> Five talking points from stage 20 of the Giro d’Italia 2020 

The most likely explanation might therefore be that the riders were victims of some very old-school punishment dished out by their bosses. Having failed to make the day’s breakaway (despite the best efforts of Pim Ligthart, who had briefly gone clear in an earlier, failed breakaway), the team’s DS might simply have ordered them to ride as punishment. On what’s already been such a gruelling Vuelta, the riders certainly won't have thanked them for that if this was indeed the case.

Dan Martin is back to his best

It’s been a long time, but today we can safely say that Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) is back to his very best.

A finish like stage three, which was uphill for the final 9km with the steepest slopes at the very top, is the kind that Martin has relished in the past, but hasn’t been able to nail recently, especially since his crash at Critérium du Dauphiné earlier this year.

His sprint at the finish was vintage Martin though, accelerating early and producing such speed that even fast finisher Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) could not match him.

In an emotional interview at the finish, he pointed out how this was his first race he had won since his twin girls were born over two years ago, making the achievement particularly special for him.

On this form, who’s to say that Martin won’t win more over the next couple of weeks — and potentially even challenge for the overall victory? Roglič is not an easy man to usurp, but Martin now lies just five seconds adrift on GC, and, with more uphill finishes to come, may fancy his chances of prising the red jersey from him.

Ineos Grenadiers assert themselves

Whereas on stage one it was Jumbo-Visma who controlled the peloton, and stage two saw Movistar dominate the final climb, today the familiar black train of Ineos Grenadiers formed on the final climb of Laguna Negra.

One by one, Dylan van Baarle, Chris Froome (now riding as a domestique) and Andrey Amador peeled off, before Iván Sosa set a pace that really did the damage with one final turn ending 1.5km from the summit.

Although their leader Richard Carapaz wasn’t quite able to finish it off with a stage win, he will still be very happy to have finished third, especially as he would not anyway have expected to defeat fast finishers like Dan Martin and Primož Roglič in a sprint.

Ahead of the longer, more difficult mountain top finishes to come, the signs are good for both Carapaz and Ineos Grenadiers’ hopes of winning the red jersey.

Unlucky Chaves loses time

Although Martin, Roglič and Carapaz finished as a trio ahead of the rest of the field, all the other GC contenders finished just a few seconds further down, with nobody suffering any serious time losses.

Nobody, that is, except for Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott), who came home in 24th-place, 1-06 down.

That time loss was not for want of strong legs. Instead, his hopes were derailed when a mechanical befell him at the worst possible time, just as the pace was ramping up on the final climb.

The Colombian’s problems were compounded when he was left having to ride the bike of his teammate’s that was too big for his slight stature, with his team car being too far down the road to immediately provide him a more suitable bike change.

His eventual time loss wasn’t fatal, and at eighth overall at 1-29 he still remains in a decent position on GC. But it will come as a blow after the opening two days had gone so smoothly for him.

Early strugglers bounce back

Alongside the established GC contenders were several less fancied names who hadn’t featured in the opening two stages.

Coming home in fourth place was Wout Poels (Bahrain-McLaren), who had spent the previous couple of final climbs dangling at the back of the peloton trying desperately to hold on. The Dutchman will have been frustrated by the time lost on those stages, given how this Vuelta was a rare chance for him to ride a Grand Tour as a protected leader, but today’s showing suggests his GC ambitions may not be over just yet — he’s now up to seventeenth at 3-13, and will continue to rise if he keeps riding like this.

Behind him in fifth today was Alexander Vlasov (Astana), the young Russian of whom much has been expected of. His resurgence today suggests that his problems so far at the Vuelta have been of the temporary kind — perhaps related to the illness that saw him abandon the Giro — and that he will after all make an impression in this race (albeit not as a GC contender — he’s already 5-42 down).

And finally, Ag2r La Mondiale’s young prodigy Clément Champoussin briefly threatened to win the stage when he launched an attack 1km from the summit. The 22-year-old was ultimately unsuccessful, and drifted to tenth at the finish, but the Grand Tour debutant certainly looks like one to watch for the rest of this race as a potential stage winner.

Thibaut Pinot season comes to a sorry end

Having already fallen well out of overall contention, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) this morning abandoned the Vuelta, having still not yet recovered from injuring his back on the opening stage of the Tour de France last month.

That brings an end to what has been a desperately disappointing season for the Frenchman, who, since first hurting his back, has been unable to build upon the promising form he showed in August to finish second at Critérium du Dauphiné.

It would be too easy to interpret the Frenchman’s continuing woes as a consequence of some kind of psychological weakness. His past extraverted displays of emotion might give the impression of someone easily emotionally overwhelmed, but the actual reasons for his recent Grand Tour abandonments have all been physical.

>>> Five talking points from stage 18 of the Giro d’Italia 2020 

He came down with a lung infection at the 2018 Giro d’Italia, tore a muscle in his thigh at last year’s Tour, and this year has been persistently bothered by the pain in his back.

Such persistent problems would suggest that Pinot has a tendency towards ailments, and difficulty overcoming them. If he’s to fulfil his considerable potential before age starts to take its toll on his legs (he’ll turn 31 next year), he’ll need to find a way to deal with these physical vulnerabilities.

Dan Martin took stage three of the Vuelta a España 2020 in an uphill sprint finish between the favourites.

Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) had the power to beat all the other overall contenders to the line, but due to Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) taking second on the day, he does not take the overall lead, with Roglič holding on by five seconds.

Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) holds onto third overall and the mountains jersey after taking third on the stage, the front three finished together with gaps to the rest.

How it happened

The race started in Lodosa and it was a fairly gentle race profile with just one category three climb of the Alto de Oncala along the 166km route that finished at the top of La Laguna Negra de Vinuesa with the final climb being 6.5km long with an average of 6.7 per cent gradient.

It was a five man group that went away in the break with Mark Donovan (Team Sunweb), Aritz Bagues (Caja-Rural), Niki Terpstra (Total Direct Energie), Tosh van der Sande (Lotto-Soudal) and Willem Smit (Burgos-BH) getting clear,  four minutes being their biggest gap.

Jumbo-Visma along with EF Pro Cycling and Israel Start-Up Nation were the team’s who were controlling the pace, as the gap to the break went right down to settle at 2-30 with around 70km to go.

Astana and Movistar took up the pacing with 63km to go and the pace started to get higher and higher and that meant the break came back very early at 57km to go with Smit staying away for a few hundred metres extra before being caught.

>>> Jai Hindley takes unforgettable stage 18 of the Giro d’Italia as João Almeida falls out of race lead

But with 49km to go, Ángel Madrazo (Burgos-BH) went on the attack with team-mate Jesus Esquerra along with Paul Ourselin (Total Direct Energie), Héctor Saez (Caja-Rural) and Valentin Ferron (Total Direct Energie).

Esquerra was dropped soon after and while the group pulled out 1-25 before the peloton started to up the pace once again with 30km to go.

Rain came in and out of the race and as they went on the clouds closed in again for the final ascent.

As they hit the final climb the leaders had just 15 seconds over the peloton as Movistar took control of the pacing as they looked to get a second win in as many days with 8km to go, the break was caught just a kilometre into the climb as Ineos took over.

Behind, Marc Soler was out of the back due to a bike change. He did get back in thanks to his team car and a couple of team mates.

Chris Froome (Ineos Grenadiers) took it up for Richard Carapaz with 6km to go and held a very high pace for his leader, forcing several riders out of the back.

With 5km to go, Esteban Cháves (Mitchelton-Scott) suffered a mechanical and  took Tsgabu Grmay’s bike,  while Froome peeled off the front with 4km to go and Andrey Amador took over, this put Cháves even further out the back.

With 2.6km to go, Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo) went on the attack and pulled out a decent gap for a brief period before Carapaz’s team mate, Iván Sosa brought him back.

Enric Mas (Movistar) was the first GC rider to up the pace followed by Felix Großschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) but no moves went and it came down to another GC sprint to the line.

But it was Martin who opened up the sprint with around 200 metres to go with only Roglič and Carapaz able to follow the Irishman to the line.

Martin took the stage but missed out on the lead overall as Roglič took the six bonus seconds for placing second on the stage. Martin took 10 seconds with Carapaz taking four on the line.

Stage four of the Vuelta a España 2020 sees the first chance for the sprinters that had managed to lug their ways over the early mountains.

Results

Vuelta a España, stage three: Lodosa to Laguna Negra de Vinuesa (163.8km)

1. Dan Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation, in 4-27-49

2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma

3. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers, all at same time

4. Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain-McLaren, at 4 seconds

5. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Astana, at 7s

6. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar Team, at 9s

7. Felix Großschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 12s

8. Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Pro Cycling

9. Sepp Kuss (USA) Jumbo-Visma

10. Clément Champoussin (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale, all at same time.

General classification after stage three

1. Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma, in 12-37-24

2. Dan Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation, at 5 seconds

3. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers, at 13s

4. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar Team, at 32s

5. Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Pro Cyclcing, at 38s

6. Sepp Kuss (USA) Jumbo-Visma, at 44s

7. Felix Großschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 1-17

8. Esteban Cháves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott, at 1-29

9. Marc Soler (Esp) Movistar Team, at 1-55

10. George Bennett (NZl) Jumbo-Visma, at 1-57.

While stage one of the Tour de France was a complete and utter crash-fest, one man who managed to keep himself out of harm's way was Dan Martin.

The Israel Start-Up Nation rider was one of many who had a less than ideal build-up to the 2020 French Grand Tour, crashing on the hailstorm stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné and breaking a bone at the base of his back.

However, it takes more than fractures to break the Irishman's spirit, saying he's in less pain on the start line in Nice than if he was resting up back at home. We assume he means physical pain and not the mental torture of missing out on the world's biggest bike race.

"Yeah I’m okay," Martin said. "I mean I have a little bit of pain still but to be honest it’s worse sitting on the sofa than it is on the saddle.

>>> Watch Nairo Quintana’s rapid recovery after crash in awful weather during Tour de France 2020 stage one 

"I feel good on the bike but racing is a different thing. I basically had to miss a week/ten days of training, these first stages are definitely going to hurt. I haven’t been able to ride over four hours these past two weeks so I’m just planning on getting through the first few stages and getting the body used to the distance again and we’ll see what we can do after the first rest day."

The winner of two Tour stages, the 2020 route is one that should offer Martin ample opportunities if he has the legs, especially in an Israel Start-Up Nation line-up that doesn't yet include the GC aspirations of Chris Froome.

But if the race has to stop before then because of the coronavirus pandemic, Martin sees the bigger picture, and is more melancholic about the state of everything in 2020.

"All of this is a reality now," Martin says of a Tour de France dominated by masks and lack of public access at the start and finish lines. "It’s actually pretty sad what the world has become this year.

"Obviously it’s a necessity and if that’s what’s needed for the race to be on and continue then it’s what we have to do. There’s no discussion on that. If we have to go home because of two positives, obviously the health of everybody and the greater good has to come first."

Dan Martin is hoping to recover in time for the Tour de France after he was forced to abandon the Critérium du Dauphiné after a crash.

The Israel Start-Up Nation rider was caught in a fall on stage two as the peloton surged towards the Col de la Porte, as Martin immediately realised he was hurt in the fall despite suffering no visible damage.

After riding to the finish, Martin went for medical checks and discovered a fracture in his lower back.

The 33-year-old said: “I was preparing myself for the last climb, for the last effort, and the guys crashed in front of me. I tried to stop in time. One of the guys hit a sign in the road. Immediately I knew I’d hurt myself. 

“It’s the weirdest feeling because I don’t have a scratch on me. I just landed full force on the bottom of my bike and unfortunately I have a small fracture down there, a small fracture in my sacrum.”

The crash happened on the valley roads before the final climb when EF Pro Cycling rider Sergio Higuita hit some road furniture and went down.

Martin was unable to avoid the collision and fell hard on his lower back.

Both riders were able to finish the stage, which was hit by a huge hailstorm which sent riders searching for cover.

Martin suffered a non-dislocated sacral fracture and did not start stage three.

>>> Six things to look out for at Il Lombardia 2020 

He will return home to recover, saying: “I rode to the finish. I could pedal no problem. It was painful and I could tell there was something not quite right. So we went to get checked and we’ve decided not to start day three of the Dauphine. It’s better to go home and recover.

“There’s no reason to be here if I’m not 100 per cent fit.

“Hopefully it heals in time for the Tour.” 

Dan Martin’s decision to join Israel Cycling Academy for 2020 may have seemed like a surprise to many.

The Irish star has been an outstanding rider with victories in some of the biggest races, but he risked missing out on the most prestigious events as he stepped down from the WorldTour with UAE Team Emirates to join the Israel-based Professional Continental squad.

Martin's move may have turned out to be a stroke of genius however, as Israel Cycling Academy later announced their takeover of Katusha-Alpecin and the step up to WorldTour level as Israel Start-Up Nation.

Speaking during the team’s first training camp and official team launch in Tel Aviv, Israel last week, Martin told Cycling Weekly: “If you'd said to me this time last year that I'd be sitting here in Israel with Israel Cycling Academy, it would have been a bit of a surprise.

“Obviously a lot of people were questioning my decision to end up here but it's become clear now. The ambition of the team shines through in the fact that made this huge effort to become WorldTour in 2020.

“From the very beginning when I started talking to them they mentioned that they've had this ambition of going WorldTour. Nobody expected us to end up there so quickly, certainly myself included. It feels like the right time and with the way it's looking it's going to be good. It's going to be successful.”

He added: “I really liken it to Slipstream [Garmin-Chipotle] in 2008 - the same feeling, the same underdog status, the same happy-go-lucky attitude but performance based and the best equipment possible and we're gonna do everything we can to be competitive.

“The process of signing for the team was different to any other signing I've done before. It was almost like a job interview. I got the feeling that these guys are really delving deep into my personality and making sure that I wasn't going to come in and be disruptive and I was going to fit into the team. That seems to be the case with all the riders, because everyone seems to get on so well.”

Martin is one of the high-profile signings Israel Start-Up Nation made in the hopes of accelerating their promotion to WorldTour, alongside André Greipel who joins from Arkéa-Samsic.

Israel Cycling Academy and billionaire co-owner Sylvan Adams had been vocal about their ambitions to reach the WorldTour, but it was uncertain exactly when they could make the jump.

This summer rumours began to circulate that Israel Cycling Academy were one of a number of teams in talks with the struggling Katusha-Alpecin squad about a potential takeover.

Katusha-Alpecin was struggling to find sponsorship as Alpecin and bike sponsor Canyon planned to pull out, before Canadian-Israeli billionaire Adams stepped in to save the team and take over its WorldTour licence, while also signing a number of Katusha riders including Alex Dowsett, Rick Zabel and Nils Politt.

Martin added: “I've got a history of just following my instinct with teams. It's the same when I went to Slipstream in 2008. I could have gone to some of the biggest teams and I just followed my instinct and went with the people who wanted to work with me and there's no better feeling than that.

“From the beginning these guys just had this incredible belief in my ability and confidence that I can still improve. But also I think the whole ethos of the team and mentality, the easy-going nature and the fact that it's very relaxed.

“But it's also incredibly performance based and focused. That's shown in the equipment we've chosen for next year.”

Martin, now 33, has built up a remarkable palmarès, with victories in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Il Lombardia, two stages of the Tour de France and three top-10 overall finishes there.

During his 12-year career, there have only been two seasons when Martin failed to win a race. This season he didn't reach the top step, his best result was second on stage six of the Tour of the Basque Country, where he finished second overall.

>>> André Greipel: ‘If I was riding for money I would have stayed with Arkéa and made next year a holiday’ 

He said: “The goal is to be as good as we can and let the results happen. We want to go into stage races and Grand Tours and not miss opportunities. We definitely changed my training last year and obviously we learned a lot from that but it didn't work.

"We just went to a lot more endurance-based training, which took away my explosiveness and we saw that in the results. I think there's only two years out of 12 that I haven't won races and this year was one of them. We just added the intensity, the explosiveness, back in this year and hopefully that'll pay dividends. I'm sure it will.

“The reason we did that last year was to chase GC ambitions at the Tour de France. There was a reasoning behind it, but this team just want to win races that's fine with me. When we do go to the Tour, I'm not going to sit up and lose time on purpose, but it's going to be the hard opening week which really suits me. We're just going to come out swinging, same in every race, and see if it works."

Dan Martin will be making the surprise step out of the WorldTour to join Israel Cycling Academy.

The double Tour de France stage winner is making the switch from UAE Team Emirates next season to join the Professional Continental outfit on a two-year contract.

Israel Cycling Academy (ICA) are pursuing a promotion to the WorldTour, cycling’s Premier League, to reach the Tour de France and hope Martin’s ability as a general classification rider will support their ambitions.

>>> Thibaut Pinot back on bike following heartbreaking Tour de France exit 

Irishman Martin, 32, said: “I feel it’s time for me to step into a new and exciting challenge. Not only will I be able to help this great project reach its exciting goals, but it's also a great opportunity for me to refresh myself and improve further.

“ICA has shown huge confidence in me, so together we can create something truly special to improve across the board. I have not reached my peak and I strongly believe that the best is yet to come for ICA and myself."

Martin will move to Israel Cycling Academy after a two-year stint with UAE Team Emirates, where he won a second stage of the Tour de France in 2018 as well as a stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné.

Team co-owner Sylvan Adams, the Canadian-Israeli billionaire, said: “Martin is a bona fide star of our sport and we hope to support him towards many victories next season. Dan is a true professional who will be a great asset to our team.

“He has proven that he can win single day as well as stage races.”

Martin is a double Monument winner, having taken the Liège-Bastone-Liège crown in 2013 and following up with Il Lombardia victory the following year.

>>> Primož Roglič to ride Vuelta a España 

ICA manager Kjell Carlstrom said: “We see Dan Martin as the start of our big leap,”

“After several years during which we were progressing step by step, we have now found the moment to strengthen the team significantly with a leader of Dan’s calibre.

"He will offer the team a lot with his vast experience but even more importantly, he will play a huge role for us as a GC man in stage races. We had a good team in the last few years but now we are stepping up with Dan and with more riders to follow.”

Dan Martin says the searing heat was a surprise in the pivotal time trial stage of the Tour de France.

UAE Team Emirates rider Martin set off on the 27.2km course around Pau as temperatures reached 30 degrees and crossed the line utterly exhausted from the effort.

The Irishman slipped out of the top-10 on a hilly course that suited the general classification riders, but Martin was satisfied with his ride in a discipline that doesn’t suit him.

>>> Wout van Aert out of Tour de France after time trial crash

Speaking at the finish, Martin said: “The heat was the biggest surprise. On the first climb I felt it straight away.

“Then you get into your rhythm and it’s a really quick course. You have to concentrate at all times.”

Martin’s time was strong enough for 33rd place on the stage, finishing just two seconds quicker than Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and 20 seconds better than Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale).

His time sees him slip to 11th place on GC, 4-15 behind race leader and TT winner Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) and 2-49 down on Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos).

>>> Rohan Dennis Tour de France abandonment ‘more complicated and more sensitive’ than a single issue

Martin, 32, added: “We knew there was a lot of climbing and that suits me. The plan was to go hard on the first part and then hold on towards the end. It’s what you do in every TT, you go out hard and then try and get to the finish line.

“I’m happy. I’m improving a lot thanks to the team. We’ll keep working on it.

“I did my best and that’s all you can ask for. I felt really good. That builds me up for the coming days.”

The race continues in the Pyrenees on stage 14 with the dreaded Tourmalet summit finish.

UAE Team Emirates made enough improvement in this year's Tour de France team time trial to keep Dan Martin within touching distance on GC, finishing 1-03 down on stage winners Jumbo-Visma.

More importantly, the Irishman's team finished within a minute on Team Ineos's duel leaders Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal. Martin now sits at 43 seconds to the pair overall. For comparison, Martin was at 1-35 to Thomas after the Tour's stage three 35.5km team time trial in Cholet last year. He never really recovered from there, falling to 9-05 and eighth place in the final general classification.

>>> Why the UCI was measuring socks ahead of the Tour de France 2019 team time trial

The UAE team in this year's Tour doesn't look significantly stronger than last year's squad, with Martin saying he had a huge amount of opportunity to train with the likes of Alexander Kristoff with such different year round programmes. Likewise Fabio Aru has been absent for much of the year after taking a break for surgery, returning to WorldTour action only last month at the Tour de Suisse.

Martin puts the improvement down to a better team atmosphere though, with the team perhaps more relaxed than at last year's race.

"It’s a strange word to use but it felt easy, nobody was surging there were no egos out there we were just working well as a team," Martin said immediately following the team time trial.

"We’ve got a great atmosphere this year, we’re having a good laugh at dinner every night and the atmosphere’s very, very relaxed and hopefully it’ll continue like that.

"Because we’re all on different race programmes and stuff it’s difficult to find the time to work together and it’s the first time we’ve done a team time trial in race conditions together so I think we did a good performance.

"We just wanted to stay conservative, didn’t want to take risks and I think we did that. We got the maximum out of ourselves and we have to be happy."

Martin will now focus on the coming mountain stages, starting with stage six's finish to La Planche des Belles Filles, to try and make back the time he lost today, but will also need to get through the stage 13 individual time trial without big losses.

Despite the team time trial improvement, he'll still face a tough task in overhauling the gap to the Ineos riders, while Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) is the best placed GC rider at just 10 seconds down on his team-mate and race leader Mike Teunissen.

"In my head I had less than a minute as a really good ride," Martin added. "I think we lost 1-20 last year; it’s a slightly shorter course [this year]. Obviously we’re not as well drilled as a team like Ineos, so it shows everyone’s in good condition.

"So we’re happy to get around safe, we’re not going to be too far behind the best times, so I think we showed a good improvement on last year."

Here's the thing about Dan Martin. He'll never go down without a fight.

Maybe it's that reason, along with his clear pedigree, why he has recorded five podiums amongst eight top 10 finishes across both La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Historic races he'll line up for once again this coming week.

La Flèche Wallonne is the one he hasn't won (winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2013), and is therefore the victory he really wants to add to his CV.

"I immediately loved it when I rode on the Flèche Wallonne for the first time in 2008," Martin said. "The ambience is very special. It is so nervous; everyone battles to keep their position and the tension rises just until the final climb of the Mur de Huy. It is very strategic. It is great and tough. I have fallen almost as much as I have finished on the podium, but it’s a race I would really like to win."

Having recorded three podium places in the last five years, you would assume Martin had some inkling of what he has to do to go just a bit better, and finally walk up to the top step himself. "It is all about training. I hope this year the Tour of the Basque Country has given me the explosiveness to battle in the Classics. I also have experience on my side, I know how to manage these races and I hope to reach my objective this year."

The Irishman points to his early season consistency, with 5th on the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, 7th on the UAE Tour and 2nd in the Basque Country. "I haven’t won yet, but I have battled with the best. These are not amazing results, but it’s been a decent year and now I am aiming for a win in a big race…a Classic."

In terms of who will stop Martin, it's fair to say he has some competition. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) lines up as not only a five-time winner of the race, but also now as world champion. "Alejandro, is Alejandro…" says Martin, "and he loves these races as much as I do. He no longer has the pressure to win, after winning as much as he has, but he will have a great time riding with his world champion’s jersey.

"He is still the favourite and he will have to be watched, but you cannot base your race on just one rider. There are a lot of favourites, the level is very high this year and for sure it will be wide open."

These other favourites include Julian Alaphilippe, whose Deceuninck - Quick-Step team have had an unrelenting success rate in the spring Classics so far. Of course, this was Martin's old team before he moved to UAE Team Emirates last season.

Naturally, he wishes the Frenchman well after his crash and subsequent abandonment of the Tour of the Basque Country, and says we'll see how much of Alaphilippe's form remains on the Flèche, saying that maybe his rival is more suited to these races since the 32-year-old continues to primarily focus on Grand Tour ambitions.

All this talk of winning the race he hasn't yet won doesn't mean Martin wouldn't love to win Liège-Bastogne-Liège for a second time. He's already come close again, falling on the final corner in 2014 as well as finishing second in 2018.

Martin may face a new rival for La Doyenne this year, with course changes opening the race up to who else but Peter Sagan, the Slovakian taking the start line for the first time in his career. "We will see about Sagan, but for sure the final stretch suits him better. Before that he will also have to be fast on the climbs," said Martin.

"It will be a different race. More open than usual. It will be aggressive. It will take a very strong team and luckily, I have one."

Martin added: "The last few years, everyone has waited for the final climb. But the course is different this year, so the attacks will come earlier. I am very curious about it. I will go to recce and then think about a strategy."

Honest yet determined is the best way to sum up Martin, who will take his quiet confidence and try and convert his podium places into victories: "I always head to the Ardennes with a lot of motivation. It is a big week of racing. I’m really looking to it."

Daniel Martin remains upbeat with the days and 2019 season ahead despite falling short on the Jebel Hafeet summit finish at the UAE Tour.

The Irishman tried to double up for UAE Team Emirates one day after Fernando Gaviria won the stage two sprint finish. However, world champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) rode clear for the stage three win.

"It was fast, with a tailwind, basically just a sprint up the climb," Martin said.

He caught his breath on the rocky mountain peaks rising high above the desert plains with Abu Dhabi and Dubai down below.

"I got a bit of a stitch there in the end, I couldn't breath. I think it's just from the type of effort it is. It's so early in the season to be doing that type of thing," he continued.

"Obviously we want to try to win, that's the aim in every stage this week to try to win a stage because it's our home race, but I couldn't have done more."

UAE Team Emirates pushed hard one day after Gaviria's win. Diego Ulissi attacked early on the Jebel Hafeet climb, Martin followed race leader Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) and attacked himself.

"I think that just shows the spirit of the team. Fernando wins yesterday and then he's riding in the wind for us today," Martin explained. "We are all here together to try to get the best results possible. Unfortunately, I didn't win today but I gave it everything."

Valverde flew free to win on Jebel Hafeet, which he conquered in 2018 to win the Abu Dhabi Tour overall. Martin finished fifth at 12 seconds and climbed to sixth overall at 54 seconds behind Roglič in the red jersey.

"Team Jumbo-Visma set a really high tempo today," added Martin. "I saw Primož when he went he was a little bit on the limit and that's why I attacked, but he was able to come with me. I saw he was really suffering so I accelerated again and he still had the legs to accelerate after me, and that's where I got dropped."

The race continues tomorrow with a small uphill sprint finish where Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) won in the 2018 Dubai Tour. Later, it climbs another summit finish, Jebel Jais, which could suit Martin.

"There are a few complicated stages to come, tomorrow, then... Every day is complicated here, it can be with the wind, we saw that yesterday, but we are going to take it day by day and look at the GC to see where we stand," said Martin.

"Roglič is very strong, he obviously came here ready and they are 100 per cent focused around him, and that's a big advantage for him. He is going really good, he is strong in the GC and he is a very strong position there."

Martin began his season with a fourth overall in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and is building for the the Tour de France later in July.

"It's just a bit of my training that I'm missing at the moment, but I'm pretty happy anyway," he said before riding back down the climb. "It's not what we wanted but it's not bad."

Dan Martin says his new young team-mate Tadej Pogačar is a “huge talent for the future” as the 20-year-old took stage race victory in Portugal.

Pogačar joined UAE Team Emirates at the start of the season, his first WorldTour team, and is already making waves.

The Slovenian took victory at the 2019 Volta ao Algarve last week, after beating some world-class climbers to the stage win on day two.

>>> Sam Bennett on being led out by Peter Sagan: ‘People give you s**t online if you don’t pull it off’

Pogačar’s team-mate Martin, winner of multiple Tour de France stages and two Monuments, is just one of the many impressed by youngster’s ability.

Martin said: “The maturity he’s shown, the confidence he shows, it just shows how far the team has come.

“It makes me feel old that a 20-year-old is winning a stage race.

“I only had one training camp with him in December so I haven’t spent a whole lot of time with him, but the time I have had has been an absolute pleasure.

“He’s a great kid, and a huge talent for the future. With the team, I’m sure he’s in the right place to nurture that talent as well.”

Pogačar, winner of the 2018 Tour de l’Avenir, sealed overall victory on Sunday (February 24) by fending off threatening moves by Søren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb).

He opened his debut WorldTour season at the Tour Down Under and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, before racing and winning in Portugal.

Martin, who is racing in the UAE Tour, said he and team-mates watched the final stage of the Portuguese race while eating dinner after the opening team time trial in the Middle East.

Irishman Martin carries his team’s general classification ambitions in the UAE, his team’s home race.

>>> Fernando Gaviria: ‘Kristoff among best sprinters in the world, today the best lead-out rider’

He added: “I’m ahead of other years, I’m training well and this is a big race for the team.

“All the riders here are in good condition, that’s why we’re here.

“The aim is to get the best results as possible.

“I’ve never raced over here so I don’t know how it’s going to go.”

Dan Martin is talking at length and fondly about his victory in the 2013 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, his maiden Monument success, when the elephant in the room gets brought up: the panda.

“It’s funny because the image of my Liège experience - a beautiful moment in my career - is of me and a panda, and not me crossing the finish line. You’ll probably use it as your main picture, too, won’t you?”

Yes, Dan, we have, see above. It’s not to disservice his achievement, but the 2013 edition of La Doyenne, and thus Martin’s win, will go down as one of the most remembered Monuments of this decade simply because of a hyped fan dressed as an endangered animal.

>>> Moment in time: Johan Vansummeren’s shock win at Paris-Roubaix

Yet the race was so much more than the sight of a panda running up the finishing climb in Ans. It was a race first of attrition, second of terrific teamwork by Garmin-Sharp, and third of the confirmation of a genuine star who can win one-day events as well as stage races.

The victory for Martin, age 26 at the time, came just a month after he succeeded in winning the Volta a Catalunya, his first general classification triumph. Liège a few weeks later reaffirmed his new position as one of the sport’s marked and most potent personnel.

But all people seem to remember is the closing kilometre and the sight of Martin, just before he attacked to win, staring an arms-waving-about-man dressed as a panda in the eye. But that didn’t actually happen; the photo is deceiving.

“I didn’t see it,” the Irishman reveals. “The first thing I knew about it was when people started messaging me on Twitter afterwards, saying what had happened and I was sat there saying ‘what the hell are they talking about.’

“Then I seen the image of me looking around at where it is. But I was looking behind to see where [Michele] Scarponi and [Alejandro] Valverde where. All I seen was someone running behind me. I was thinking ‘get out the way’, as I couldn’t see Valverde potentially coming from behind.

“I didn’t have a clue it was a panda. It would have broken my concentration completely had I know it was a panda. I just thought it was an idiot running up the hill.”

Memories from a momentous day. “It was an incredible day, one of those days where everything goes perfectly,” he reflects. “I didn’t make any mistakes. On these long days it takes a subliminal concentration all day to ride perfectly and be at the right place all day, not wasting any energy, not even a single ounce of energy. It was probably one of the best performances on my bike.”

His GC win in Spain had him feeling confident, but the favourites for the race were Joaquim Rodríguez - 2012’s most successful rider - and Valverde, a rider who is a master of the Liège course.

It’s put to Martin that he may have been intimated by the Spanish pair. “I had already just beaten them at Catalunya. I didn’t know I could be at the time but I was on the way to being on a par with them.”

The race followed a traditional path: a breakaway of six went up the road, but they weren’t permitted a race-long stay out front. Once they were caught by the peloton at 38km, a few riders attacked, but nothing stuck.

Then, at 16.5km from the finish, Martin’s teammate Ryder Hesjedal, the then Giro d’Italia champion, attacked after the Côte de Colonster.

For a few brief moments, the Canadian looked to have a genuine chance of staying away, of bucking the trend of the race being decided at the finish in Ans. Yet the way this race unravels appears to be pre-determined (hence in part the parcours being changed for 2019) and thus Hesjedal was reeled in by five chasers, 5.4km shy of the finish.

It was here that Martin’s chance came. “Ryder knew his only chance to win was to attack with 15km to go. Once he rolled his dice, he worked for me,” he says.

“When we caught up with him, he looked at me, didn’t say anything but he could see I was good. We had an understanding of each other’s strength.”

For four kilometres Hesjedal led the group. Martin attacked after a kilometre of Hesjedal setting the pace but was closed down. He subsequently slipped to the back of the group.

At 1.2km, Rodríguez launched his expected move. He went up the road, distancing himself. Martin panicked. “I almost lost the race. Purito attacked and I wanted Valverde to attack so I hesitated, but Rodriguez was disappearing.

“I started to think, ‘wait a minute, I don’t have the legs’. That perhaps was the intimidation. I was thinking that Valverde will close the gap for me, but that day I was stronger than him.”

Martin chased. “I was closing the gap pretty quickly. The last 50 metres before I caught him I backed off a little so that I was fresher when I got to him.

“Then it was a waiting game, waiting for the right moment. He was looking over his shoulder and that’s when I went. I was almost waiting for him to lose concentration. I had left it long enough and I think he thought I was waiting for the final sprint so I took him by surprise. I didn’t want to risk it on the sprint, so it was a case of going all in.”

The win was special for a multitude of reasons, including reinforcing Martin’s age-long affinity with one-day racing. “There is still something very special about one-day races, and I love them,” he extols.

“You take risks and leave everything out on the road. There is a lot less strategy and science involved in the planning. In fact, you can’t plan for them. It’s a lot simpler than stage racing and there’s something beautiful about that.”

Dan Martin said he was proud of himself and his UAE Team Emirates team after he finished second to Nairo Quintana on the Col de Portet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.

Still shaking with the effort of chasing the Colombian to the 2,215-metre summit, Martin explained that he’d treated the ascent as a time trial, riding at his own tempo with the aim of keeping Quintana within reach and then trying to catch him in the final kilometre.

>>> Chris Froome commits to support Geraint Thomas for Tour de France win after struggling on stage 17 finish

"The altitude got me at the end. I think living at 2,800 metres probably helps him," said Martin with a rueful smile.

"I planned to attack earlier. That’s why we put Darwin [Atapuma] and Kristijan [Durasek] in the break. I wanted to go on the Col d’Azet, but there was so much wind on those early climbs and you get so much help from being on the wheel that it just wasn’t worth it. I had good legs and thought I could do a good last climb," said Martin, who decided to take advantage of Sky easing back on their tempo in the first kilometre of the Col de Portet.

"Nairo came with me and I think he wanted to ride together, but he just rode so hard at the bottom. I just wanted to ride at my own tempo, so I just turned it into a time trial.

"I was trying to keep him to 10-15 seconds and normally over the last 500 metres I can close that gap," said the UAE team leader.

"But I had a bad kilometre between about four and three to go and he just managed to pull that gap out and I couldn’t close it in the end."

Martin acknowledged Quintana was the better man on the day, but was still very satisfied with his effort.

"I’m really proud of how the team rode and how I rode as well," Martin added. "It’s pretty special to get second in a mountain top finish like that and especially one where the strongest rider finished first. Being second strongest on the hardest mountain top finish of the Tour de France is pretty special."

Martin, who revealed that his first experience of the Tour was as a spectator on the Col d’Azet during the Pla d’Adet stage of the 1999 race, said his whole race could have gone very differently if he hadn’t lost two-and-a-half minutes due to an untimely puncture and a crash late on in stage eight to Amiens.

"But then again you can never look back and I’m really proud of how I’ve managed to get this consistency over three weeks, to still be strong in the third week. To win in the first week and to almost win in the third week with a crash in the middle shows that I can handle three weeks of really hard racing in the Tour de France," he said.

Daniel Martin (UAE-Team Emirates) finished the eighth stage of the Tour de France in Amiens "ripped to pieces" after a crash in the final 17 kilometres.

Martin is able to continue the race, with X-rays clearing him of fractures, but he will certainly feel the pain of his back when he races over the cobbled of Roubaix on stage nine.

>>> Dylan Groenewegen wins second consecutive Tour de France stage as Dan Martin loses more than a minute in crash

"I'm ripped to pieces," Martin said coming out of the X-ray truck at the Tour de France.

"I landed on my back. That's why we thought there might be a fracture, but it seems not. I bounce well."

Martin, winner of the sixth stage to Mûr de Bretagne, lost 1-16 minutes in the incident that occurred within 17 kilometres to race. He now sits in 31st, losing 10 spots, at 2-47 minutes back from overall leader Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing).

"I've felt better… But it's not as bad as I feared, there's nothing broken. I've got to try to ride over those cobbles stones tomorrow. I'm going to be sore and my back is a bit of a mess," added Martin.

"I think you always know it's a mess when the doctors take off the bandages to do the scan and go, 'Ohhh!'

"But it could have been a lot worse. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Martin finished the 2017 Tour de France sixth overall, a result made more impressive when scans revealed that he had two fractured vertebrae. He fell in the stage nine incident on the descent of the Mont du Chat that took out Richie Porte (BMC Racing) from the race.

The fall was a result of a nervous peloton today, when Martin ran into the rear wheel of another rider.

"This race has been incredibly nervous this year and especially with so many people standing along the road. The guys ride millimetres away from them to try and move up," Martin said.

"I was one of the first to crash. Someone braked in front of me, turned right and took my front wheel away. I couldn't do anything. There are these moments in the peloton and who knows what causes the crashes. The Tour gets away with it by saying it's the Tour but it's strange that there aren't crashes like this in other races."

"When a rider crashes, you never know how it happened," UAE Team Emirates sports director Philippe Mauduit added.

"Why? They say because it's the Tour de France, because it's the finish of an important race, everyone wants to be there."

The team is now worried with the Roubaix stage tomorrow that covers 21.7 kilometres of pavé. Afterwards, they have a rest/travel day and the mountain stages begin in the Alps.

"You know how it is when a rider like he is now, from feet to his head, it hurts," Mauduit explained. "It will be a tough day tomorrow, for sure."

Dan Martin had nothing to lose, so he shot free midway up the Mûr de Bretagne closing climb in Tour de France stage six and won, adding to his standing and his overall bid.

The UAE Team Emirates rider won the stage ahead of Pierre Latour (Ag2r La Mondiale) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team). Now, with time bonuses, he sits 21st at 1-27 minutes overall.

"I really just saw the opportunity," said Martin. "I thought maybe it was too early, but if I hesitated then maybe I'd be too late – I had nothing to lose. And if they caught me, I knew I could stay with them because of the headwind.

"On the climb, I felt the headwind and thought maybe it won't be my day, but when I attacked, I didn't look back until the near the end. I kept going and my legs seemed to be there for me."

Martin tried a similar move in 2015 when the Tour de France last visited, but he managed only second place.

In 2018, he arrived to the Tour more mature after having raced for team Quick-Step and joining Emirates at the start of 2018.

"Yes, all day I thought of that and when I went," Martin said of 2015.

"I went same place as in 2015, and I knew it was with a lot hotter stage everyone was tired and it would be hard on the climb."

Martin is concentrated on the overall in this 2018 edition, giving it a proper go after finishing sixth overall last year with two fractures in his vertebrae.

"The most important thing today is the victory. Like I said before, when I had a lot of the questions this morning about if I was aiming for the stage victory or to take time, I said, if I win the stage, I take time," continued Martin.

"We are very happy today. Now we have our stage victory, we're enjoying it here and now we will enjoy the Tour even more whatever happens."

The Tour de France is only in its first week with two flat stages and the Roubaix stage on the immediate horizon. After a rest day/transfer, the race resumes for its second week in the Alps. Martin will take it calmly.

"This season, I realised how I'm affected as a rider by the leadership role. I can't let the pressure get to me or if I am nervous or stressed then that makes everyone nervous and stressed," Martin said.

"It is me stepping back and realising what I need to do. I had this moment of reflection. I race best when I am happy and relaxed. When I am happy, everyone is happy, especially when I win."

Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) was in a positive mood despite suffering heavy time losses in the Tour de France stage three team time trial.

"It hurt, it’s a team time trial, but I think we got the best out of ourselves but I felt good and [hopefully we'll have] more of the same over the next days and see how far we can go," Martin said.

>>>  BMC Racing win Tour de France team time trial to put Greg Van Avermaet in yellow

Out of all the general classification contenders Martin faced the biggest time losses as UAE Team Emirates finished 1-39 behind stage winners BMC in 15th place, with TTT specialist Oliviero Troia puncturing and putting a damper on the stage.

"We brought him in specifically for today as he is a big strong guy for the time trial but he got a flat after nine kilometres and we lost him," Martin added.

"That probably cost us 15-20 seconds at the finish line but other than that we all rode out of our skin and rode to the plan. It’s the biggest horsepower we had available and we did a good ride."

The time losses aren't the biggest surprise after a poor team time trial at the Critérium du Dauphiné, and admitting before the race that the team hadn't rode a team time trial before.

After escaping the crashes on the first stage, Martin was pragmatic in the time gaps that have already been made between the GC favourites.

"If you told me I would only be 40 seconds off Froomey after the team time trial I would have been pretty happy, obviously that first stage was important but a lot can happen in the next six days," Martin said.

"Some days you’re going to lose time and some days you’re going to win time and today we lost but on the first day we were the right side of the split."

Despite initially highlighting Chris Froome as the marker to beat, Martin believes the GC picture will become a lot clearer as the race goes on.

"Anything can happen, its more Team Sky as a whole," he said.

"I’m one minute 40 behind G [Geraint Thomas] now, but it’s a long race but I’m also ahead of Nairo [Quintana] still so its not a bad start to the Tour for us definitely."

Dan Martin wants to build on his sixth place in the 2017 Tour de France, but admits that the team time trial could make things more difficult in 2018.

Martin left team Quick-Step Floors to have a chance with UAE Team Emirates in the Tour de France this season. He says that everything "is gelling" for the start of the race on July 7, but the first week, especially the team time trial, is going to be difficult

"We are going to do our best," Martin said one day before the Tour in the west of France. "We are gelling as a unit, the feeling's really good in the team."

The team for the next three weeks includes Alexander Kristoff, Darwin Atapuma, Kristijan Durasek, Roberto Ferrari, Marco Marcato, Rory Sutherland and Oliviero Troia. In the last week, they have been drilling their team time trial as well as riding the cobbles of the Roubaix stage nine.

>>> Richie Porte: 'There are a lot of guys ready to end Chris Froome's Grand Tour winning streak'

"We've never ridden a TTT together, but it feels like we have after these last few days of training," Martin added. "I am a lot happier than I was at the Dauphiné, we have a gelled unit here and a powerful one."

Martin turned around a difficult start to 2018 in the Critérium du Dauphiné, losing more than two minutes to the top team. However he won a stage later in the race, coming close on other days too, and finished fourth overall behind winner Geraint Thomas.

Had the team not lost so much in the team time trial, he perhaps could have won the race overall. Martin and his team-mates lost 2-28 minutes to Team Sky and slightly less to the other top teams and riders.

The stage three team time trial in Cholet, the location of the UAE hotel in these days, covers the same 35km distance.

Watch: Tour de France 2018 preview

"There are going to be days I lose time, but it comes and goes. You have to stay concentrated until the end and just let it gel together," he said.

"The only pressure you should really feel is the pressure you put on yourself. Obviously this is an incredibly important race, but it's you guys who put the pressure on us!

"We are very confident, we have a strong team. With that confidence, the pressure goes. We all want to be successful here. If we have fun, the results will come.

"I don't feel the need to put a number on [the final GC standings]. The goal is to stay healthy, the main thing to come out of last year is the belief and confidence it gave me. I asked myself, 'what would've been possible without injury?'"

>>> Tour de France 2018 route: what to expect from the 105th edition of the race

Martin fractured two vertebrae on stage nine of last year's race, but still managed to challenge in the overall. Only after the race, was the damage revealed.

"Now it's completely different, my condition is different, my competitors have different condition. I feel good, but I don't know if I feel better than last year or last week. I need to go into the race and just see what happens. It's one hell of a ride the Tour de France.

"It's definitely more restrictive racing for GC. It's a different sense of satisfaction. Winning a stage is amazing, but the GC is obviously incredibly important. Especially after last year, I want to ask, how far can I go in the GC? I don't know what that answer is, but I want to try."

Though he’s finished on the podium at Flèche Wallonne three times, and in the top 10 a further two occasions, Dan Martin is yet to win the hilly Belgian Classic.

Starting in Seraing near Liège, Wednesday’s 198.5km race is two kilometres shorter than last year’s event, but has 11 classified climbs spread throughout the parcours, rather than the eight backloaded ascents of 2017. The finish line has not moved, however, which the line coming at the top of the fearsome Mur de Huy and its 20 per cent gradients.

>>> La Flèche Wallonne 2018: all you need to know

“It’s a lot harder course this year and potentially that suits me,” Martin told Cycling Weekly. “I think there will be a more select group into the bottom of the Mur which helps positioning, but it is a long race and you’ve got to get there.”

Other than 2015, when a crash scuppered his hopes, Martin has been on the podium in each edition since 2014 and on each occasion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) has been victorious. Valverde has now won the race five times - more than any other rider - last year being his fourth consecutive victory.

“We have just got to hope he is getting slow,” laughed Martin when asked how to beat the Spanish rider. “I have been thinking about it a lot all season and there’s ways I can improve in the race.

“Flèche always comes to the sprint up the hill,” Martin continues. “But it depends on what condition you can get to that last sprint.

"Last year I was on Alejandro’s wheel at the bottom but lost position because it was raced differently to other years. It was almost like the finish line was at the corner and I hesitated, I knew guys couldn’t do that to the finish and they stopped dead and blocked the road.”

For some viewers Flèche Wallonne has the reputation of being five hours of boredom with five minutes of action on the one kilometre climb of the Mur de Huy and its 20 per cent gradients.

Despite trailing Martin when stage three of the 2015 Tour de France finished there, Valverde seems to have mastered the art of winning on the Mur, though Martin can nearly match his consistency.

“I have developed the knack of judging the effort and that is why I have got such a good record there. People make a lot of me coming from so far back with 200 metres to go, but maybe I have judged it right and they haven’t because that’s why I come past them.

“It is very easy to say you’re too far back but at the end of the day it’s where the finish line is.”

Martin’s former Quick-Step team-mate Julian Alaphilippe has also done well on the Mur. Second in two of Valverde’s recent victories, the Frenchman missed last year’s race but is back with good form this year.

“Hopefully it’s going to be a three way sprint between me Alejandro and Julian,” concludes Martin, hoping it will finally be him on the top step of the podium.

Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) has abandoned the 2018 edition of Paris-Nice on stage seven after heavy rain and cold conditions hit the race.

Irishman Martin placed third in last year's edition, and was seeking another podium spot for his new squad, UAE Team Emirates, this year.

However, the 31-year-old appeared to be struggling during Saturday's climb-filled stage from Nice to Valdeblore La Colmiane and called it a day after around 85km of the 175km route.

Martin was among a number of riders to call it quits during the stage, with UAE team-mate Alexander Kristoff also climbing off.

>>> Paris-Nice 2018: Latest news, reports and race info

Mike Teunissen (Team Sunweb), Julien El Fares (Delko Marseille Provence), Koen De Kort (Trek-Segafredo) and Bert Van Lerberghe (Cofidis) were among the abandons. French sprinter Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) was a non-starter, citing poor weather.

At the start of the day, the race's organiser reported that only six of the 22 teams still had their full complement of seven riders in the race. LottoNL-Jumbo had started the day with only three riders.

Team Sky lost Wout Poels after he crashed during Friday's stage and abandoned after fracturing his collarbone. He had been in second place overall behind leader Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), and Sky is now rallying behind 2017 Paris-Nice winner Sergio Henao.

With the cold, wet conditions set to continue and with the possibility of snow on the final climb to Valdeblore La Colmiane, more abandons are expected.

Paris-Nice concludes on Sunday.

Dan Martin says that he is looking forward to his 2018 season debut for new squad UAE Team Emirates at the Volta ao Algarve with a 'mixture of nerves and excitement'.

The 31-year-old Irishman made the switch from Quick-Step Floors to UAE Team Emirates in the winter, and will make his racing debut in his new colours in the Portuguese race from Wednesday, February 14.

“Going in to Volta ao Algarve I have a mixture of nerves and excitement. There is always anxiety to get back to racing and find out where the fitness levels are, but I feel good and have trained well in the winter months, but racing is of course always different," said Martin in a team statement.

"It’s exciting to finally pin a number on the UAE Team Emirates jersey and start racing with a great group of guys."

>>> Geraint Thomas and Michal Kwiatkowski line up for Team Sky at Volta ao Algarve

Martin will join British sprinter Ben Swift in UAE's line-up in the Algarve, along with Italians Valerio Conti and Edward Ravasi, Norwegian Vegard Stake Laengen, Slovenian Jan Polanc and Australian Rory Sutherland.

Although it's the first time that the group has raced together, Martin says they have already gelled at team gatherings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBKf6itmYnU

"Of course it will take time to learn how to race well together but we already did two nice training camps with lots of laughs and getting to know each other.

"We have a very strong team coming to Algarve so I can’t wait to get started."

Martin put in a career-best performance at the 2017 Tour de France, where he finished sixth overall despite fracturing two of his vertebrae in a crash with Richie Porte (BMC) on stage nine. He will lead UAE's team in the 2018 Grand Tours alongside fellow new signing Fabio Aru, and seek other opportunities throughout the season.

"UAE Team Emirates share my vision, my attention to detail and my passion for the sport, and as I enter into the most important years of my career, they offer me the best platform possible to reach my potential and fulfill my sporting goals,” Martin said last year after it was announced he would sign with UAE.

The 2018 Volta ao Algarve takes place over five stages from February 14-18, and will be decided by the final day’s individual time trial, comprising 14.2 flat kilometres.

Martin will face stiff competition from the likes of former winners Geraint Thomas and Michal Kwiatkowski (both Team Sky), Richie Porte (BMC) and Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin).

Quick-Step Floors Sports Director Brian Holm has revealed how Dan Martin will be a big loss to the team in 2018 after the Irishman moved to UAE Team Emirates in the off-season.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly at Quick-Step Floors training camp in Calpe, Holm spoke about how the Belgian team were gutted to lose a rider of Martin's calibre.

"That is one rider we are really going to miss, he was one of the best ever. Because Dan was one of the most professional and nicest guys to work with."

>>> Dan Martin and Ben Swift to ride Volta ao Algarve in February

Martin arrived at Quick-Step from Cannondale-Garmin, with a solid collection of Monument victories at Il Lombardia and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. However, the 31-year-old was looking for opportunities to race Grand Tours as a GC contender, and it astounded Holm that he hadn't been given the chance before in his previous team considering his pedigree.

"He told me that Cannondale did not consider him a climber, I said 'what the hell you're not a climber?' He was asking if he could do GC for me and I was like 'of course'."

"I said if he doesn't make top-10 I’ll cut off his ears, luckily he did it so I didn't have to do it."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBKf6itmYnU

In his two years at the Belgian outfit, Martin secured his first top-10 placing at the Tour de France with a ninth-place finish in 2016, before bettering that a year later with a sixth-place result; his best Grand Tour result to date after finishing seventh at the 2014 Vuelta a España.

That was all the more impressive considering the injuries he sustained after a horrific crash with Richie Porte while descending the Mont du Chat on stage nine of the Tour.

"He should be able to go and podium, that should be his big major goal for sure," Holm added. "Imagine, he finished sixth with a broken back. A little bit more luck and without a broken back I really think he can finish on the podium."

Despite the goodwill Holm has sent Martin since his departure, the Dane wouldn't want any achievements that Martin may acquire in the future - including Grand Tour podiums - to compromise the goals of the riders currently on the Quick-Step roster.

"It is going to be interesting and I really hope he can do it, but obviously alongside Bob Jungels of course!"

Stars from the world of cycling turned out to the annual Champions of CycleSport dinner on Thursday night, helping to raise £260,000 for charity Action Medical Research.

Among the stars in attendance at the Battersea Evolution in London were Chris Boardman, Graeme Obree, Dan Martin, Alex Dowsett, Katie Archibald, Dani Rowe, Steven Burke, Yanto Barker and Rochelle Gilmore.

Former Hour Record rivals Boardman and Obree gave an on-stage interview with Sky News presenter Dermot Murnaghan.

"What a fantastic evening! It has been an absolute privilege to be this event’s Ambassador for the last five years and I could not be more proud to see how much it’s grown in that time," said Boardman.

"Action is a charity that I hold dear to my heart; my son George was born six weeks early and so I know first-hand the concern that parents have for their little one’s health.

"I’m very proud to be a part of the ‘Champs Dinner’ and am truly delighted to hear how much has been raised to help fund vital research."

>>> Graeme Obree to attempt Herne Hill flying lap record at new event in June

Obree added: "It was an honour to be invited and just amazing to meet so many passionate cycling fans. Action is a wonderful charity and I know that cycling is very much at the heart of its fundraising. It was just nice to be able to play a small part."

Around 600 guests made the evening a success. An auction after the dinner raised a significant amount, and included items such as a Vuelta a España leader's jersey signed by Chris Froome, an original portrait of Stephen Roche and a watch donated by one of the event's sponsors, Garmin.

The Action Medical Research Champions of CycleSport dinner has been run since 2010, and in total has raised over one and a half million pounds for the charity which is dedicated to funding research into conditions that affect children, including asthma, prematurity, epilepsy, meningitis, cerebral palsy and brain cancer.

Dan Martin says that he goes in Saturday's Il Lombardia in good shape, despite fracturing his back during the Tour de France, which he reflects was "not the best thing I could have done".

The Irishman of Quick-Step Floors counts Il Lombardia as one of the trickiest races to get right, with a tough route and its position so late in the season when riders are inevitably battling fatigue. The signs were good after he placed 11th in Milano-Torino on Thursday.

"On paper you see riders who are really, really strong but they just don’t have the legs anymore," Martin said in an interview for the Velon website.

"And October is unpredictable on an individual basis - you can feel good one day and terrible the next. The cycling season is getting longer and that fatigue from the whole season counts."

Martin won Il Lombardia in 2014, and says that he benefitted from an enforced mid-season break that year after injury.

>>> Il Lombardia 2017: Latest news and race info

"The year I won Lombardia, I’d broken my collarbone in May and had two months off, so I had that freshness. A lot of people put it down to motivation but a lot of the time, the body says no. That’s just the way it goes."

This season, Martin suffered from injury again after post-Tour de France scans revealed that he had fractured two vertebrae as a result of crashing on stage nine. Despite the injury, he carried on to the finish in Paris. He took time out after the Tour to recover, and says that he is very nearly back in top form.

Watch: Tour de France stage nine highlights

"The fracture is healed, it’s just the muscles have got a lot of memory of what happened," said Martin.

"Obviously forcing them for two weeks [at the Tour] with a broken back is not the best thing I could have done. It’s going to take a while but we’re getting there, and I’m getting the power back, and looking forward to Saturday."

Martin ranks among the leading favourites for the 2017 edition of Il Lombardia. He will face stiff competition from home favourites Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and Fabio Aru (Astana), and the likes of Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac), Adam Yates (Orica-Scott), Warren Barguil (Team Sunweb), Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) and a host of other top names as befits the prestigious Monument.

Il Lombardia will be Martin's final big event for Quick-Step Floors as he moves to UAE Team Emirates for 2018.

Dan Martin insists that he has made a "sporting choice" to leave Quick-Step Floors after two seasons, but has looked back fondly at his time with the Belgian super-team where he says their winning mentality has been imprinted on his own psyche.

Martin is joining UAE-Team Emirates in 2018 as one of their principal general classification riders, both team and rider buoyed by his sixth-placed finish at this year's Tour de France.

He last week told Cycling Weekly about his excitement in joining his new team, but his current employers have privately admitted that they are sad to see Martin departing, both for his riding talent and his character.

>>> Dan Martin: ‘I learned this year that I can win the Tour de France’

Martin, too, expressed sadness but preferred to draw on the positives he has experienced. "It's the winning atmosphere of this team," he told CW.

"If you look at my career, each year I have made steady progression and have got better. I'm not sure how much of that has been due to being in this team, but being surrounded by guys who are used to winning and staff who are used to winning can only help.

"They go into every single race with the objective of trying to find a way of winning. It's special, this team. That's definitely something I have learned these last two years, that the atmosphere of a team is crucial.

"That's part of the psychology. [Last week at the Tour of Britain] even when Fernando [Gaviria] hasn't quite finished the job off in the end and finished second, we've been gutted.

"There's never a moment of celebration when you get second. Liège-Bastogne-Liège and La Flèche Wallonne this year [where Martin finished second in both], we were gutted not to win."

Martin is currently preparing for the World Championships with the biggest ever Ireland squad of six riders. The Tour of Britain was his first race since the Tour de France after doctors ordered he had three weeks completely off the back as a result of the back injury he suffered during the Tour.

His return to the Quick-Step bus was "strange" though. "It's strange not to be coming back," he said. "Especially when I'm hearing the guys talking about next year already. You spend so much time on the road with them that it almost becomes like your family. It was the same when I left Cannondale.

"But I am incredibly excited [about joining UAE-Team Emirates] and it's a great opportunity I have going forward that takes the edge off that sadness.

"For your sporting career, if you're sentimental about these things it can hold your career back, and this time I have very much made the sporting choice and gone with the opportunity that enables me to try and make the most of the best years of my career."

Dan Martin is confident that he has the quality, experience and knowhow to be able to win the Tour de France in future years.

The Irishman is joining UAE-Team Emirates next season after two years racing with Quick-Step Floors.

At the Belgian team he has recorded two successive top-10 finishes in the Tour de France, coming ninth in 2016 and sixth this July, his highest GC result in a Grand Tour; his previous best was seventh at the Vuelta a España in 2014.

The recently-turned 31-year-old, who is racing the Tour of Britain this week, believes that at his new team he can improve in the Tour even more, and even claim the yellow jersey.

"It doesn't go for everyone, but if you're on the startline, you can win the Tour," Martin said. "I learned this year that there is a possibility. I have the capability to do the best on the climbs and my time trialling is improving a lot."

>>> Dan Martin finished Tour de France with fractured spine, scans reveal

Martin's ability against the clock has often been his undoing in stage races. "I've made a big improvement this year and UAE want to develop it, too," he said.

"It's a crucial part of the sport now. If you look at the prologue in Düsseldorf this year, I was the third best GC guy behind Chris [Froome] and [Simon] Yates.

"Beating Chris is going to be incredibly difficult as he is one of the best time trialists in the world, but that group behind him, I am there or thereabouts."

Although the route for the 2018 Tour has yet to be announced, Martin confirmed that he would in all probability be riding La Grand Boucle next July, and he is excited to be going with a team fully supportive of his general classification intentions.

"The way my programme usually works, it's very hard to peak at the Ardennes and then go to the Giro," he added.

"The Tour is the important one. It's the one that if I don't go to with a full team's backing, and try and go for the podium - something I could have potentially got this year without the crash - I'd look back at it later on in my career and think 'what if'.

"Obviously this year I went to the Tour as a team leader, but there was still Marcel [Kittle] in the team and that created a division of power. I've got a team with UAE that fully believe in the ambition and potential to reach the podium."

Fabio Aru is also expected to join Martin as one of the team's newest recruits, and the two-time Monument victor thinks that in the event of having himself and Aru in the same Tour team, that could make him stronger.

"Fabio always enjoy riding the Giro, but if we were both at the Tour, what a tag team we'd have," Martin said.

"That could have a real big potential to change the race for us both. Having that back up, having that ability to attack the other guys, that could be a lot of fun."

Irishman Daniel Martin, after placing sixth overall in the Tour de France, will leave Quick-Step Floors for UAE Team Emirates this winter.

The Arabian team announced his two-year contract, 2018 and 2019, on Friday. The team could become a Grand Tour powerhouse like Team Sky as soon they are set to welcome Fabio Aru, too.

>>> Cycling transfers 2018: All the ins and outs from the WorldTour

"The opportunity to join an ambitious group backed by globally recognised brands and use my experience to create a team capable of challenging the best in the world was one that I couldn't refuse," Martin said.

"UAE Team Emirates share my vision, my attention to detail and my passion for the sport, and as I enter into the most important years of my career, they offer me the best platform possible to reach my potential and fulfil my sporting goals."

Martin, 30, blossomed in team Quick-Step over the last two years after spending several seasons with Garmin/Cannondale. Martin placed ninth overall in the 2016 Tour and sixth this year.

"He performed very well this year, not only in the Tour, and money also starts to become important," Quick-Step boss Patrick Lefevere said on Thursday.

"I think many teams want to have a rider like Martin. Unfortunately, I didn't have a sponsorship partner for the team who wanted to pay 10 million dollars. I'm happy with what I have, though."

Quick-Step will continue to develop Luxembourg rider Bob Jungels, who will race the Vuelta a España after racing to eighth overall in the Giro d'Italia and winning the white jersey of best young rider this May.

UAE is also expected to sign Fabio Aru, who placed fifth in the recent Tour, second in the 2015 Giro d'Italia and won the 2015 Vuelta a España.

Martin could lead one Grand Tour team and Aru another. Martin will also give the team added muscle for one-day races.

"Daniel Martin is capable of excelling both in the [one-day] races as well as the major tours," team manager Carlo Saronni said.

"We will be able to create the conditions that will allow him to express himself at his best and, with this in mind, we have also secured ourselves the performance of an experienced pacer like Sutherland."

Nairo Quintana's Australian domestique Rory Sutherland will leave team Movistar this winter after three years.

Sutherland said: "This new challenge offers me the opportunity to work with my good friend Dan Martin while also helping the development of the younger generation of professional cyclists within the team."

UAE Team Emirates look set to announce the signing of Fabio Aru in the coming days, with Dan Martin and Domenico Pozzovivo also possibly joining the team.

Cycling Weekly understands that Aru has already inked a deal already with the Arab team, with Martin and Pozzovivo also possibly a part of the planned announcement.

"Many teams want them would like to have them," team manager Carlo Saronni told Italian website Tutto Bici when asked about Pozzovivo and Martin.

"Negotiations are underway, some things have yet to be defined, but in the coming weeks, or rather, in the coming days, we can say precisely. Let's say that at least a couple of riders are near the finish line and soon our backers will celebrate the arrival of new high quality, winning, riders."

>>> Cycling transfers: All the ins and outs from the WorldTour

Quick-Step Floors rider Martin rode to sixth place behind Chris Froome (Team Sky) at the Tour de France last month, and has been linked with a move to UAE Team Emirates for a number of weeks

Another possibility is that Martin signs with Trek-Segafredo, the American WorldTour team being in search of another GC rider after Alberto Contador announced he will retire after the Vuelta a España.

Pozzovivo could potentially add climbing strength to the Grand Tour team that UAE would take to the Giro d'Italia or Tour de France to support Martin and Aru. Cycling Weekly understands the deal is nearly ready to bring the Italian from Ag2r La Mondiale.

Watch: Vuelta a España essential guide

The team, run by Saronni's father Giuseppe, is also bringing on board sprinter and Classics rider Alexander Kristoff. However South African stage race talent Louis Meintjes will leave the team after it was announced that he will ride for Dimension Data from 2018.

Aru would leave Astana after six years, a spell which included a Vuelta a España title in 2015 and a runner-up spot in the 2015 Giro d'Italia. He recently placed fifth overall in the Tour after suffering with illness in the final week.

"That we are interested in him is no longer a mystery, who would not like to put the class of Aru into a team project? For such an important rider it is right to prepare a proper proposal in every detail, at the moment, I can only confirm that we are working to develop the best possible proposal," Saronni said.

>>> Fabio Aru confirmed as Astana leader for upcoming Vuelta a España

"The operation is complex because it involves a broader project with more people. We need to find the right balance between our team's needs and the priorities that Aru has repeatedly mentioned as necessary to enable him to reach the maximum goals.

"In short, work is under way to arrive at a proposal that takes into account what I have just mentioned. We are almost ready to present our proposal to the Sardinian: a comprehensive, complex and complete project."

Dan Martin completed the 2017 Tour de France with fractures to two of his vertebrae. The 30-year-old Irishman was unaware of the fractures that came as a result of crashing on stage nine of the race and said the delayed diagnosis was a 'surprise'.

Martin (Quick-Step Floors) was descending the Mont du Chat when he was caught in a collision with Richie Porte (BMC). Both riders landed heavily, and although Porte abandonded the race immediately due to his injuries, Martin remounted and carried on.

>>> Dan Martin: ‘I raced like an idiot at the Tour last year, but I’ve learned a lot’

Martin then rode through a gruelling final week in the Alps, often staying seated during climbs due to the pain he was suffering. He finished sixth overall - his highest ever Grand Tour placing - four minutes and 42 seconds behind winner Chris Froome (Team Sky).

Martin's Quick-Step Floors team announced on Thursday that a post-Tour medical examination revealed that Martin had fractures to the L2 and L3 vertebrae in his lower back.

Watch: the best of the 2017 Tour de France

"During the Tour I didn't have any problems when racing, but off the bike I wasn't feeling very comfortable, so this week I did a scan and got the news," said Martin, who has now been forced to withdraw from starting the Clásica de San Sebastián on Saturday and rest for three weeks.

"It's a real pity I won't ride San Sebastian, because the legs were there and it's a race I like, but fortunately this injury isn't something to worry about.

"In order to tackle my future goals in good condition, it's better to take a break and give the fracture time to heal. There's nothing else I can do, just rest and then build up for the final part of the season."

Martin later said on Twitter: "Diagnosis of 2 small fractures took me by surprise. Shows how powerful the mind is in pushing through. No wonder I couldn't stand up straight".

Martin's Tour de France team-mate Jack Bauer replied: "Just a 6th place in the @LeTour GC with 2 fractures in his back. No biggy. Strong bro, real strong!"

Italy's Grand Tour star Fabio Aru, currently fourth in the Tour de France, will leave Astana at the end of the 2017 to become on of a number of riders to join UAE Team Emirates in 2018, reports La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.

Aru has agreed to a three-year deal that will keep him in the Arabian team through 2020. However in line with UCI rules, general manager Giuseppe Saronni cannot confirm the signing until August 1.

The deal will be worth around €3 million annually, according to Cycling Weekly's sources.

The team is also said to have confirmed Italian Elia Viviani, who wants to leave Team Sky early to race Grand Tours for stage wins, and Irishman Daniel Martin from Quick-Step Floors.

Saronni said "no comment" when asked of the news this morning. Of course, he needs a replacement for South African Louis Meintjes. The 25-year-old, currently eighth in the Tour, has reportedly singed a deal with home WorldTour team Dimension Data with Mark Cavendish and Steve Cummings.

The Aru deal would beef up Saronni's new team, which abandoned the Lampre sponsorship over the winter for a last-minute deal with the United Arab Emirates and the airline giant Emirates.

Watch: Tour de France stage 17 highlights

Aru won a stage in the Tour de France and held the yellow jersey for two days so far this year. He also claimed two stages and second overall in the 2015 Giro d'Italia and of course, the 2015 Vuelta a España victory.

With Aru leaving, Astana must look elsewhere. They are due to welcome Norwegian sprinter Alexander Kristoff, whose relationship with Katusha-Alpecin is on the rocks. It will also need a Grand Tour star.

Rigoberto Urán, currently second in the Tour, is top target for general manager Alexandre Vinokourov. The 30 year-old Colombian began racing in Italy and his fluent Italian is likely to help him fit in quickly at the team.

Frenchman Warren Barguil, winner of the Tour's stage to Foix and likely mountains classification victor, is also on Astana's radar for 2018.

Barguil is out of contract and if he is to have a chance to ride the Tour as leader, he may need to leave Team Sunweb who are likely to back Tom Dumoulin at the Tour in 2018..

Here we have the brand new 2018 Specialized S-Works Tarmac, completely overhauled, and being raced upon by Dan Martin for his Quick-Step Floors team.

The paint scheme is properly dressed down, in an understated black with white writing. The frame itself is a 56cm, and tops the scales at 733g, which is a low enough weight for the GC contenders such as Dan Martin.

Of course, Specialized claims the bike to be the fastest GC bike available, 45 seconds faster over 40km when compared directly to the Trek Émonda and the Cannondale SuperSix Evo Hi-Mod 2.

This speed bonus, Specialized says, is down to its small tube profiles and flat rear chainstays, as well as its re-worked forks.

Dan Martin runs a fairly standard professional setup, with a 130mm stem. Although, unlike most pros, he isn't running it slammed, instead shoving a 5mm spacer under the stem. Its paired to narrow, 40cm bars.

His wheels are Roval's CLX Rapide Wheels, and he's turning a full Shimano Dura-Ace R9150 Di2 groupset, equipped with a 4iiii's dual sided power meter and 172.5 cranks. His chainrings are a fairly standard 53/39 paired to an 11x28 cassette.

Dan Martin has had a rough time of it so far this Tour, falling heavily on stage nine, when Richie Porte crashed into him. He has been able to soldier on, albeit in a lot of pain.

Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) has said his dreams of taking the Tour de France yellow jersey are very likely over after he lost 51 seconds in the crosswinds on stage 16.

When the race split in the crosswinds between Le Puy-en-Velay and Romans-sur-Isère, Martin found himself in the second group and with Team Sky, Team Sunweb and Ag2r La Mondiale pushing the pace in the front group he was unable to catch back on.

“The yellow jersey is probably over but we’re still fighting,” he told a gaggle of reporters as he warmed down by his Quick-Step Floors team bus.

>>> Tour de France peloton ripped to pieces in crosswinds as Michael Matthews win stage 16

“I haven’t been bad before but it’s a bit different doing across wind stage in the last week than the first week. That was shame to lose time.

“I was in the red and then the downhill was so dangerous. That’s partly what led to me I losing position because just as it split on the downhill there were a couple of very very near crashes with guys getting swept in the wind into the left of the group I had to slam the brakes on a couple of times and that’s why I lost the ten positions that were vital when the bunch split."

Quick-Step Floors were down two men after Philippe Gilbert didn’t start the stage as he was suffering from gastroenteritis and Matteo Trentin failed to make the time cut on stage nine.

However, the team also used up much of its limited fire power trying to get its sprinter, green jersey wearer Marcel Kittel, back into the front group after he and others were distanced from the peloton early in the stage.

Watch: Tour de France stage 16 highlights

When asked if the team had put its efforts in the wrong place today, sports director Brian Holm said: “That would make sense. Gilbert is out, Matteo [Trentin] is out, we are short of numbers. When you’re two riders less it makes it slightly more difficult. Marcel couldn’t follow on the climb, he was dropped, but we looked after Dan. I don’t know if it was the crash or not [to blame for his time losses]."

However Martin said that he didn’t feel the team was struggling to balance its sprinting and GC ambitions.

Holm added: “We’re usually quite alright in the crosswinds but three riders it’s not really the same as with nine in the crosswinds so we knew it would be quite difficult.”

Despite slipping to seventh place on GC 2-03 behind race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky) Martin will continue to aim for a podium place.

>>> Five talking points from stage 16 of the Tour de France

“We’ll see if I have a bit more freedom, I said anything can happen it has now so we’ll regroup and see what happens,” Martin continued. “I’m not going to race any differently.”

Kittel, meanwhile, saw his lead in the green jersey competition cut as Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb), who is currently in second place, won both the intermediate and final sprints netting himself a maximum 50 points.

He is now 29 points behind Kittel with 50 points on offer for winning each of the two remaining sprint stages, and 20 for the intermediate sprints.

Kittel said: “I can’t say I’m happy about losing all the points today, but there was nothing I could do. I think I gave my best at the very beginning. We tried to keep ourselves in contention, but it wasn’t our day today.”

Ireland's Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) says that this close Tour de France classification battle – six riders within around one minute of the lead – works in his favour.

He gained 14 seconds on Froome and his rivals in the Massif Central stage 15 to Le Puy-en-Velay on Sunday with a late attack. His solo move, at 5.7 kilometres to race, saw him overtake Sky's Mikel Landa for fifth place overall.

"I think it works in my favour that there are so many guys close on GC," Martin said warming down outside the team's blue and white bus.

"They look at each other and I am a little further back. They are not [as] wary of me, but I am closer now."

>>> Chris Froome: ‘It was panic stations. I had to get back on or it was game over’

Martin is closer, sitting 1-12 minutes behind leader Chris Froome (Sky) in the overall.

"I very rarely make a plan, it is just opportunities. When Simon Yates attacked on the climb, after he kind of stalled, and I was a bit afraid because the in the race there were many teammates left [of other riders] an Ag2r rider and Landa was there for Chris Froome,” continued Martin.

"I knew it was downhill to the finish, I thought if I go and get a gap then it would be difficult to get back for them. I took the opportunity, saw the opening and went."

A similar move with Yates in stage 13 to Foix saw Martin gain nine seconds.

Watch: Tour de France 2017 stage 15 highlights

"I have been nipping away at time and taking advantage of the situations. I learned the hard way last year that every second counts."

Martin in 2016 slipped back to ninth in the final week. He said earlier that he "raced like an idiot last year and made mistakes in his first year racing for the Tour's overall classification".

The 30-year-old, who is out of contact at the end of 2017, says he does not think about being considered a hero with his attacks.

"I just race my bike. I don't pay attention to that. I just do what I love," he added. "That's why I race the way I do, I just see the advantage and race hard."

>>> Tour de France 2017: Latest news, reports and race info

The hard part is to come in the coming week after the second and final rest day tomorrow. The peloton faces a stage over the Galibier and one summit finish, never before used, to the Col d'Izoard. The penultimate stage time trial covers 22.5 kilometres in Marseille.

"It's up to everybody else to attack Chris Froome, but as I say, if you have a bad day on the Galibier or Izoard you can lose minutes," Martin said.

"I think everybody is going to be very wary of that and it could lead to a negative race, but having said that, guys do want to win the Tour de France. It's going to be an interesting week."

Irishman Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) enjoyed taking "bonus" time on his general classification rivals in Foix after struggling with injury through the Pyrenees.

Martin entered the Tour’s third mountain range hoping merely to defend his position and not lose time as he was still feeling the effect of a high-speed crash last weekend when Richie Porte (BMC Racing) lost control and inadvertently took Martin down with him. Instead after two stages through France’s southern mountains he has gone from being 1-44 off the yellow jersey to 1-32.

>>> Fabio Aru fends off Chris Froome's attacks to retain Tour de France lead as Warren Barguil wins stage

The Quick Step Floors rider put in an aggressive performance in the Tour’s shortest road stage, a 101km jaunt from Saint-Girons to Foix. He led the group of favourites almost all the way up the steep Mur de Péguère before then attacking on the descent to the finish, taking white jersey wearer Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) with him.

Hunched over his bike in exhaustion at the finish he said: “I was just looking for opportunities on the steep climb. Because of my back I can’t really get out of the saddle so I just rode a hard tempo, then nobody can attack. It worked until just before the summit.

“I think it’s mission accomplished for me, gaining time is a huge bonus.”

He added: “I thought they might hesitate and let me go because I’m a bit further down on GC. A few seconds here and there is nice, especially considering my injuries.”

Watch: Tour de France stage 13 highlights

Martin, who had appeared strong in the Tour’s first week before his crash, now looks to be in good shape to challenge for further time in the Alps later next week.

“I’m getting better every day, I feel so much better than yesterday. I’m hoping it’ll continue like that,’ he said.

However, he said he still wasn’t thinking about a specific overall result. “From the start, I never set goals, I just race my bike do my best and then if I’m better than the others I’ll win,” he said.

>>> Five talking points from stage 13 of the Tour de France

The stage saw a volley of attacks on the final descent with first one then another of the GC favorites pinging of the front in an effort to weaken or break away from an isolated Fabio Aru (Astana) in the yellow jersey.

Martin and Yates were the only two that were successful in their bid for freedom. However, when asked if he felt there was weakness in the other GC men Martin said: “Today, just a really hard day on the bike you can’t tell. It’s so different to yesterday, it’s just all out all day. I think everybody is going to be happy that’s over.”

Headcam footage from a Mavic neutral service mechanic from Sunday's action-packed Tour de France stage nine gives a rare insight into this side of the race.

The motorbike-mounted mechanics are never far from the peloton and the break, on hand to help assist riders with punctures and mechanical problems when their own team cars are nowhere near them.

This proved to be the case for Quick-Step Floors leader Dan Martin after he suffered two crashes in quick succession on the descent of the Mont du Chat.

>>> Tour de France 2017: Latest news, reports and race info

Martin was riding with the contenders group including Chris Froome (Team Sky) when he collided with Richie Porte (BMC) as he crashed on a narrow corner. Both riders hit a rocky bank very hard, with Porte abandoning the race and being taken to hospital.

Martin's Specialized S-Works bike evidently needed some attention, with the chain requiring to be remounted on the chainset, rear wheel aligned back in the frame and a front wheel change.

At one point, the mechanic can be seen in the video, posted online by Velon, trying to bang the front wheel out of the fork having not loosened the quick release sufficiently, as Martin says 'Hey! Wheel! Wheel!'.

>>> Tour de France organisers ‘got what they wanted’ on chaotic Mont du Chat descent

All the problems appear to be sorted out swiftly and the injured Martin carries on down the descent.

Martin revealed after the stage that his front brake had lost power with the replacement wheel, which caused him to crash a second time. This time, his team car was on hand and he got a complete replacement machine.

Remarkably, Martin did an amazing job to compose himself and get on with the chase. He finished the stage in ninth spot, having lost just one minute and 15 seconds to race leader Froome and now lies in sixth place overall at 1-44.