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I can win Tour de France one day - Dan Martin
Dan Martin has said his Tour de France ride means he has bigger status in pro cycling and he feels he can win the race one day.
The QuickStep rider, who was set to finish 6th overall when today’s final stage is done, said while he had made mistakes this year he would learn from them.
But writing in his Irish Times Tour de France Diary he believed that in the future he could take the yellow jersey and hold it all the way.
“Coming into the race, nobody even mentioned my name. They didn’t see me as a contender for the yellow jersey, or even for the podium,” he said.
“I’m now leaving the race with a much bigger status. More importantly, I have a lot more respect from the rest of the peloton.
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“And I feel that one day I can actually take the yellow jersey all the way to Paris.”
He also defended his team’s performance on stage 16. Martin was left behind in the crosswinds and lost 51 seconds.
His QuickStep team mate and stop sprinter Marcel Kittel got dropped on the early small climbs. And while other sprinters got back on, Kittel was unable to do so.
Some of the team were with the German, leaving Dan Martin exposed up ahead when the crosswinds hit the race later.
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But the Irish rider said his team mates back the road had been ill. And they were simply unable to get back on.
“They had been all so weak from the illness that they simply couldn’t stay in the peloton,” he said.
Jack Bauer was with Dan Martin and worked very well for him. But Martin said they lost each other as the race was splitting.
He already explained he braked a few times on a downhill just before the peloton broke up. That cost him 10 to 15 places in the bunch.
And he believed that positioning was the difference between making it into the front group or being left behind.
He would lose more time the following day, stage 17. On that occasion he was tailed off the select group near the top of the Col du Galibier.
But while he looked to be back onto the group at the very top of the climb, he said Alberto Contador left a gap open.
And Dan Martin was unable to close it, coming home some 27 seconds down on the GC podium men.
But depite losing time both days and also in yesterday's TT, Dan Martin believes he can win the Tour de France one day.
Dan Martin still learning
“I am still learning, I think. Maybe it was a little lapse in concentration again. But the outcome was frustrating,” he said of that time loss in the crosswinds.
“My legs were better than the general classification result suggests, but that’s the way it goes.”
He was disappointed to come down in the crash that cost Richie Porte his place in the race. It saw Martin lose 1:15. However, he felt that was simply bad luck.
He blamed himself more for the time loss in the crosswinds. After he had made mistakes that day, it cost him.
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