Dan Martin Tour de France 2018: The Irish cyclist says he is confident he will be placed well to give it a go in the mountains.
Dan Martin has been confirmed, as expected, to lead UAE Team Emirates at the Tour, with Alexander Kristoff for the sprints.
Martin is the undisputed general classification leader. There were concerns that he may have to share that with Fabio Aru.
However, the Italian pulled out of the Giro and is currently ill. It means he misses the Tour.
And while Kristoff will be a protected rider on the sprint stages, only some of those will suit him. It is also unlikely the team will ride for hours on stages to bring back escapes for him.
However, exactly how the team will blend the general classification aspirations of Martin and the stage win hopes of Kristoff will only become clear on the opening stages.
Advertisement
They key issue for Martin is that he is the dedicated general classification man.
Winning in France last month; a timely reminder of what the Irish climbing ace is capable of.
Related News
Also in the line-up are climbers Darwin Atapuma and Kristijan Durasek. They are joined by Marco Mercato, Rory Sutherland, Roberto Ferrari and Oliviero Troia.
“Since I signed for Team UAE the big goal has been the Tour de France,” said the Irishman just over a week out from the race.
“I plan to take the race day by day, stage by stage and try to achieve the best results possible.
“It’s really a race of two halves and the first nine days will be very tricky bringing different challenges each day,” he added of stages where crosswinds and pave will play a part.
There is also a team time trial, some 35km on stage 3, to be negotiated. It is a discipline the team has not done well at in recent times.
“I’m confident we have a great team that can get me to the mountains in a good position to have a bit of fun,” added Martin.
“Everything has gone well since the Dauphine and I’m just looking forward to getting started.”
While Martin has enjoyed a relatively quiet season, he looked like his menacing self in the Dauphine. He won the second of four mountain stages that concluded the race.
And during that section of the event he rocketed up the standings to 4th overall. And with that his first really big result of the season, hopefully he can excel at the Tour.
He was 9th two years ago and 6th last year; his 2017 ride arguably the best of his career.
He was badly wiped out in a stage 8 crash. But he battled incredibly well, going on the attack repeatedly to get time back.
That was despite being unable to stand properly due to a bad back after the stages.
And when he was given a fuller medical examination at race end, it was discovered he had fractured two vertebrae. Yet he had still just placed 6th in the Tour de France.
Topics
