Dan Martin is set to get his season underway at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana which begins in Spain on Wednesday.
The Irish cyclist won a stage in the race back in 2016
and was 13th overall. The following season he finished 5th in the final
standings and was 4th overall last season.
This year he will go up against the likes of Alejandro
Valverde (Movistar) in the fight for stage and overall victory.
Other favourites in the race include the Astana duo of Ion
Izagirre and Luis Leon Sanchez while Tom Dumoulin makes his debut for Team
Jumbo Visma.
It will be the Dutch rider’s first race since crashing
out of the Giro last May and his progress will make for interesting viewing.
Tadej Pogačar, a UAE Team Emirates team mate of Martin
last year when he outshone the Irishman, goes in as a big favouritie.
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Dylan Teuns will also be out to make a splash, and
perhaps contend for overall victory, with the new Bahrain-Merida team.
Team Ineos has a very strong team despite the absence of
any of its Grand Tour leaders – and Ireland’s Eddie Dunbar.
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Michał Kwiatkowski, Tao Geoghegan
Hart and Gianni Moscon will all fancy their chances for stages and the overall.
The race, over five stages, should
see the sprinters or breakaway men prevail on the first stage as well as stages
3 and 5.
However, stage 2 – some 181km from
Torrent to Cullera – features a climb over just 2km to the finish.
And stage 4 – which takes the riders 170km
from Calp to Sierra de Bernia – is an undulating one before a climb of
almost 5km to finish on.
There is no TT this year which means Dan Martin can do well if he is in form. An early result would be welcomed to get his tenure with his new team off to a good start.
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