Dan Martin hung up his racing wheels at the end of last season despite his incredible stage victory in the Giro showing his will to win was still intact and very much backed by ability. However, he has since spoken to the sacrifices required to reach the top level being so extreme it made the life much less attractive to him.
That outlook is perhaps understandable, especially given the seemingly endless round of altitude camps followed by major races that the professionals undertake. However, cycling fans will perhaps find it more difficult to understand Martin's view of cycling as a spectator sport; that the current era of pro cycling, despite the brilliant racing of the last few years, is quite boring but for Tadej Pogačar.
Martin revealed he decided against an offer from Team Sky, as it was then, during his career because they rode like "robots". And while the British World Tour team is no longer the force it was, Martin clearly feels the corporate 'results are everything' mentality espoused by Dave Brailsford's team has now spread across the sport, to its detriment.
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“That’s why I stopped riding this time last year – because the sport was becoming so controlled, " he told The Guardian newspaper in the UK. "I’d lost my advantage because every cyclist now is told exactly what they’re doing and each team’s methodology is the same.
"I want to be able to decide why, when and what training I do and what tactics I use. If I had gone into (Team Sky), I wouldn’t have enjoyed myself."
Martin's new book - Chased by Pandas: My life in the mysterious world of cycling - has just been released, hence his interview reflecting on his time in the sport.
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He said, ultimately, he valued the freedom of racing - the freedom to express yourself on the bike, specifically, the freedom to attack - over taking a more controlled approach to cycling, no matter the rewards.
"Racing is quite boring to watch now as nobody makes mistakes any more," he said of the current era. "Everything is so fine-tuned you don’t see guys having bad days. Everybody is nutritionally perfect, training is perfect, and it’s lacking that human element. Racing has become quite prescriptive.
“Even though people say it’s the best racing ever,” Martin suggests, “it’s really down to Pogačar. He is the loose cannon who attacks whenever he feels like it, whereas the rest of the racing is so scripted and controlled.”
Martin added there was a whole generation of cyclists now who had to make more sacrifices than he did just so they can even get into the pro peloton and then hold their places, such were the demands of modern cycling.
“Just to be on the start line in the Tour you have to do altitude training camps, honed nutrition, you need to be super, super, skinny. You have to be doing what Team Sky did," he said. "But I got top 10 in the Tour de France, training out of my front door every day. Today that’s not possible.
“It’s OK for the guys making a huge sacrifice who are getting paid crazy amounts of money, like Pogacar. But domestiques are getting paid potentially less than they would have been 10 years ago, but they’re having to make many more sacrifices. That’s what worries me."
