“I texted him straight after the win and said me and your mother are just speechless”

Proud parents: Neil Martin said he and wife Maria were "speechless" at son Dan's win in the Tour de France yesterday.

By Brian Canty

Neil Martin admits he was “speechless” after his son Dan ended Ireland’s 21-year wait for a Tour de France stage win yesterday.

Martin senior watched the extraordinary events unfold with his wife Maria in their home in Girona - where they now live. And though Neil always believed Dan had the talent to win, to see him actually do it in the biggest race of all was a dream come true.

“I texted him straight after and said me and your mother are just speechless,” said Neil.

“We watched it here in Girona, the phone has gone crackers with messages and comments on twitter and everything; it’s just unbelievable, phenomenal.”

Neil did say he was worried the two-man move with Jakob Fuglslang might not work – though it eventually proved to be the winning one.

“I didn’t think it was going to stick, especially when Belkin started taking up the chase for whatever reason.,” he said.

“I mean, they didn’t get anywhere in the sprint for third so I don’t quite understand why they did that but anyway... and he was always going to be faster than Fuglslang.”

“There was a lot of talk about this last bend as well, the 90 degree turn. But tactically, Dan was phenomenal. He just got it right again. He’s very cool. He’s very intelligent when it comes to that. It was awesome.”

Interestingly, Neil believes in a curious case of superstition, to do with the number nine.

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“It’s that number nine, stage nine again, isn’t it?” he contests.

“It’s the family lucky number, anything to do with nine; so the number 9, 18, 45, anything that adds up to nine or involves nine brings us luck. Now he’s won a stage of the Tour, stage nine and stage nine of the Vuelta two years ago. It’s quite uncanny.”

“A lot of the time number nine is involved. He’s in his 27th year, two and seven? You can probably manufacture a nine out of most things but it is significant that he’s done stage nine of the Vuelta and the Tour... so get some money on him for the Giro next year!”

His Tour is now made, says Neil, and he can just take the race as it comes now.

“He’s got out what he wanted. We’ve often said, a stage win or 11th? Which would be better? To be honest, I can’t even remember who was third last year, not to mind 11th! So we’d much rather him go in and do what he’s done and win a stage and then get out of it what he can.”