Dan Martin (leading) has been forced by illness to sit out this weekend’s racing
After enjoying contrasting fortunes at the Tour of the Mediterranean last week, the coming weekend’s assignment for Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche at the Tour du Haut Var has turned into another mixed bag for the Irish duo before a pedal has been turned in anger.
Martin was looking forward to testing himself on the slopes of Mont Faron on the Tour of the Mediterranean penultimate stage last Saturday but his team bikes were robbed overnight meaning none of the Garmin-Sharp riders could start the stage and so were forced out of the race.
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He said later that he had woken with a head cold and was debating whether to start the stage when news of the stolen bikes emerged and the decision was taken out of his hands. That condition has laid him low in the past few days and he has decided not to start the two-day Tour du Haut Var tomorrow, Saturday.
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Roche on the other hand enjoyed some good form at the Tour of the Mediterranean, taking 8th in the time trial stage, performing well up Mont Faron and finishing the race in 5th overall. While he was a little disappointed that his team plan to move him up the overall had not yield the result he was hoping for, bagging 5th on a stage race with a TT was a very good result for him, especially so early in the season.
He starts the Tour du Haut Var in the morning as part of his new Saxo-Tinkoff team’s line-up at the race and will be looking for a good result on what are a lumpy couple of stages.
His team for the race is: Johnny Cantwell, Christopher Juul-Jensen, Michael Rogers, Evgeny Petrov, Roman Kreuziger and Chris Anker Sørensen.
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