Dan Martin battles the gradient towards the Andorre Arcalis summit finish as the rain pelts off the road (Photo: Sirotti)
Having ridden himself into third place overall at the Tour de France on Sunday's stage 9 with an attacking ride in Andorra, Dan Martin began to look more and more like a genuine contender for the podium when the race reaches Paris in two weeks.
One of the very best climbers in the world, and the best explosive climber on his day; Martin has always looked like a rider who could ride for the general classification in a Grand Tour and make the podium.
And while there is a long way to go on this race yet, Martin’s fantastic pre Tour form appears not only to be holding, but improving.
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Martin, far left, finishes on the same time as Richie Porte and just two seconds behind Yates, Quintana and Froome after a fantastic ride (Photo: Sirotti)
Interestingly, the winner of Sunday’s fantastic stage; Tom Dumoulin (Giant Alpecin) said he felt it was better to win a stage than ride for a strong final general classification placing some way off the podium.
And Martin echoed those sentiments saying he did not count himself in the shake-up to win the race and that aggression and trying to take a stage win would be the order of the day for the remainder of the Tour.
Still, he looks in the form of his life and if he can avoid a bad day anything is possible as far as the general classification – and even the yellow jersey – is concerned, despite his reaching for cold water to pour over such notions.
"I don’t consider myself a contender,” he said at the end of yesterday’s stage where he attacked the select group containing race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Colombian ace Nairo Quintana (Movistar) on the final climb to the summit finish.
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Martin said he attacked the main contenders because he wanted to see what he could do and insists he has no plans to curb his aggression despite now being 3rd overall (Photo: Sirotti)
“Chris and Nairo are the big favourites for the win, but I wanted to see what I can do, so I attacked a few times," he added.
"In the final kilometre it was a headwind, and because of that it became difficult to try something there.”
Martin did a lot of jumping about and worked on the front of the group in the closing stages, both closing gaps and riding for time gains on some of his rivals in the general classification as they were being dropped.
As a result of his riding, he struggled a little bit in the final push to the line, which he crossed in 14th place and 6:37 down on the stage winner.
Having been slightly distanced by those he was with inside the final kilometre after riding very honestly, he dug deep to get back into the group.
And he would finish on the same time as Richie Porte (BMC) and just two seconds down on Froome, Quintana and Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange).
"Overall, I can't say the weather had an impact, but I'm sure it looked cooler on TV,” Martin said of the rain, which saw rivers of surface water running down the roads.
“I'm third overall now, but I still want to take it day by day and try to get a stage win. I like riding again in the high mountains.
“Etixx-QuickStep reminded me how to enjoy what I am doing and I can't say enough times how great this team is.
“I'm an aggressive rider, that's my nature, and I like to attack and fight for the win even if this means getting dropped, instead of sitting behind and fighting for second."
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