On his way back mentally and physically from a shattering Giro experience, few would bet against Dan Martin pulling some big results out of the bag before the season is out riding for Garmin-Sharp and perhaps at the World Championships in the green of Ireland. Seen here at last year's Worlds in Florence alongside Great Britain's Chris Froome (Photo: Sirotti)
By Brian Canty
Though his season was turned upside down — literally — in Belfast at the Giro d’Italia last month when he crashed and cracked his collar bone 15 minutes into the opening stage, Dan Martin is back ready to face the world again.
The Garmin-SHARP rider based his season around the Italian Grand Tour. And with the help of a very strong team the Irishman believed he could have achieved a top general classification result, only for his and the team’s plans to go up in smoke.
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They finished almost three and a half minutes down on that rain-soaked opening team time-trial in Belfast.
And though their plan B for the overall, Ryder Hesjedal, finished ninth, it wasn’t what it might have been for them; not with Martin in such awesome form at the time.
But a month on from what he describes as probably the lowest point of his career, his voice is chirpy and manner is sprightly again.
“I’m alright, the thing I need to remember is the day I crashed I was in some of the best form of my life,” he said.
“Obviously at Liege (where he also crashed out) I was probably at the best form and I had to take it a bit easy between Liege and the Giro. But I was still in incredible condition when I crashed. So having two weeks off was never going to take away that much.
“I was never going to get back on (the bike) and be unfit. I think I was expecting to be kind of unfit. But I feel really good. I’ve just been riding my bike, getting in solid miles.
“I can’t really do much intensity yet. I’m just strengthening the collar bone. But it’s getting better every day and I get more movement every day. It’s incredible to think it’s over three weeks since it happened.”
Martin looked to be in a lot of pain and shock when he went down so hard in Belfast, but four weeks on he appears to have bounced back mentally with his uncanny ability to find a silver lining (Photo: Sirotti)
He has received the best of care in the interim.
“On the bike there’s no pain. Two weeks after the operation we had the X-rays and the doctor said if I felt potholes when I was riding that I should stop, it’s too soon for that.
“But I’ve never had any pain from the bone. I didn’t put any pressure on it and didn’t use it at all and had the X-ray and got the all-clear. So it’s been good as gold since then.
“The muscles around it were weakened and strained from the crash, as well as not using it for two weeks. The muscles start to hurt around the shoulder when I’ve had three and a half or four hours on the bike, or when I’ve had multiple days on the bike, but that’s just a re-training process.”
He’s an optimistic type and always looks for the silver lining.
“As always, I can look on the bright side and say that I was very fortunate and it wasn’t a more severe injury. At least the collar bone was just a quick, clean break and it took an operation to fix it and get back on the way (to recovery).
“It could have been a lot more complicated with ligaments and joints. So in reality, I was incredibly fortunate.”
One thing that touched him and made the last few weeks bearable as the world’s media craned in for an interview when all he wanted to do was hide, was the support he got from all quarters.
Family, friends and fans all reached out to him in one gigantic show of support.
Just about to attack Joaquin Rodriguez in the closing stages of last year's Liege-Bastogne-Liege which he won in emphatic style. He looked set to win again this year, or at the very least make the podium when he crashed on the last corner (Photo: Sirotti)
“It was incredible. I kind of disappeared for a while. Part of it was the operation as well, everyone gets messed up hormonally, all the anaesthetic and painkillers hit me pretty hard.
“I think when you crash and it’s your fault, or you’ve made a mistake and fall on a pile of guys you know what has happened.
“But I crashed two races in a row and I didn’t really know what happened. I couldn’t have avoided it. It was just pure bad luck in both cases and that’s what hit me hardest psychologically; because it wasn’t my day on both occasions.
“But that also helps me to get back on the bike. You just get on with it. You just have to keep it in the back of your mind and lightning doesn’t strike twice.
“But the thing about the Giro that put me in a really dark place is the pain that I caused the guys that I love; my teammates and friends. Even though I couldn’t have avoided it I still have that guilt in the back of my mind that I partly ruined the race and got the team off to the worst possible start. Also inflicting pain on guys you really care about; that’s what really hurt.
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“Obviously, I’ve talked to the guys and definitely there’s no hard feelings at all. Ryder went on to ride an incredible race and it really shows the character of this team.
“That’s why we’re such a strong unit when things are going well, and when things go badly we stick together and fight to the end.”
He said the days before the race and then starting only to crash out so quickly was a roller coaster of emotions.
Martin's 2nd place in La Fleche Wallonne is his best result so far this season; seen here with winner Alejandro Valverde and 3rd placed Michal Kwiatkowski (Photo: Sirotti)
“Everyone joined me on the high of the team presentation and then the moment of stunned silence around Belfast and I felt that. I think it’s really cliché but my pain was shared by the whole country.
“And it’s incredibly humbling to feel that and share that moment with me; worldwide TV viewing me on the floor in that much pain. But the people and the supporters were so great and I’m so grateful for it.
“It definitely helped me through. Even though I wasn’t posting on Twitter and Facebook I was reading all the messages and it helped me through what was possibly the darkest period of my career.
“So I’m looking forward to meeting as many people as possible on Saturday and just saying thank you. Words can’t describe how it felt to get so much support.”
The Saturday he refers to is the DID Cycle4Life charity ride starting in Dunboyne, Co Meath, this Saturday, June 7th.
The Giro came and went. Instead of Martin lighting it up, he wasn’t even paying attention. He didn’t want to hear or see it. But that changed.
“I didn’t watch a single kilometre for the first week. I couldn’t even bear to watch it. But I got my head around it. It took me a while to talk to the guys but I got my head right and really started to support them.
“And it was great to see Ryder on his comeback trail and hard not to be there helping him. I’m not going to... I don’t even think about how I could have done. Just for the team it would have been great to have two of us there in the mountains.
“But that’s the way it goes and you can always take the positives and say I’ll be one of the freshest guys around when the end of the season comes because I’ve only done 18 days racing. Physically and psychologically I should be good.”
His plan for the remainder of the season, however, is very much a wait-and-see.
“I keep asking the team what I’m doing but I’m not sure when they’ll announce my plan, we’ll just see how I go,” he said.
“For sure, I love riding my bike and it’s the first time in my life that I’ve had an injury that’s prevented me from riding a bike... even just getting on the home trainer after the crash; I never thought I’d want to ride that so badly and riding it would be so much fun.
“I normally hate the thing but I was sitting on it happy as Larry for an hour and really enjoying it and thinking ‘what the hell’. It made me appreciate riding in the normal world when I’m fit and healthy.
“That first ride obviously I was stiff and nervous but it was still great to get out riding and I think I did nearly five hours which was probably completely wrong but I just got carried away. Mentally I just wanted to ride my bike and maybe the crash will give me the hunger at the end of the year.”
He says he is looking forward to what will be a relaxed out at the DID Cycle4Life on Saturday, adding working to raise funds for Temple St Children’s Hospital and visiting the patients and staff regularly underlines to him how lucky he is.
“I try to do my best for the hospital and I’ll help however I can. So to get gifts from them like I did the last month is very special,” he said of the artwork the children prepared for him while recovering from his crash.
“I’m fortunate enough to be good at riding my bike but there’s people in the hospital who make a hell of a lot more of a difference than me to really help. Those kids are in a lot of pain and suffering in hospital and looking at me, hopefully I might inspire then to get back on their bikes too."
Cycle4Life Details
Last year it raised a massive €200,000 for the hospital. You can still register for Saturday’s event by clicking here.
Martin will be on hand to not only take part in the event but also speak to fans, pose for photos and sign autographs. So if you have kids, bringing them along for the day is a must.
There are three routes available to entrants:
- Family Route, at 3km.
- Medium Route, 55km.
- Advanced Route, 105km
Sign on opens from 7am, with the advanced cycle starting at 9am, medium route at 10am and family route at 11am. Riders are asked to check-in, or sign-on, at least one hour before their event in Dunboyne, Co Meath.
You can get full details by checking out the event’s website.
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