A previous winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Dan Martin has insisted his name will not be up in lights again this year.
The Irish rider explained he had been ill of late and
that the bug he picked up has not cleared up yet.
Because of that he said he would ride for the team
tomorrow. In his absence from the team leader berth, UAE Team Emirates has
Diego Ulissi.
The Italian took 3rd at La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday, when Martin abandoned the race.
His team explained Martin was having an off today after he was dropped with about 35km to go and later climbed off.
However, 2013 Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner Martin has now
said he’s been unwell for some time.
Initially both he and his team believed he had just picked up a head cold. That appears to have been ruled out now, though he added he was unsure what he had.
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At his team’s press conference ahead of tomorrow’s race,
Dan Martin explained he picked up the illness at or just after the Tour of the Basque Country.
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He appeared to come out of
that race in great form; taking 2nd on the final stage and jumping from 6th to
runner-up in the general classification.
However, he says now that he
picked up an illness on that race. And while he had felt it was clearing up,
that was not the case.
"If I'm here, it's
because the team believes in me and wants me to be there to help the team as
best as possible with my experience. But I will not be there for the victory,"
Martin told the media of his expectations for tomorrow.
He did not ride Amstel Gold last
weekend and after abandoning the second of the Ardennes Classics mid-week, he
has effectively relegated himself from team leader status for tomorrow’s event.
"On Tuesday, I was 90 per cent,” he said of how he felt 24 hours before La Flèche Wallonne.
“We thought I had recovered
well. On Wednesday, early in the race, I
was still not bad. But after every kilometre it was worse and worse.
“Thursday, I was not good at all. Since then, it's been a little better every day," he said, adding it was better that he play a support role tomorrow.”
Team has other cards to play
He sounded frustrated as he
said he was feeling good early on Wednesday’s race.
“But I didn’t have any power after that,” he said of that
first section of the race. “It’s kind of put me back in my recovery as well.”
However, he was still glad to be taking to the start
line, though added he would assess his condition tomorrow morning.
Once he did start, he said, he hoped to be able to play a
support role towards one of his team mate’s taking a result.
As well as Ulissi, UAE Team
Emirates can also look to Sergio Henao. Its 20-year-old rising star Tadej
Pogačar is also riding, as is former world champion Rui Costa.
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