Dan Martin is after a tremendous Tour de France and can look back on a job very well done as he led the Etixx-QuickStep charge on general classification. Barring a disaster today he will finish ninth overall, six seconds off seventh and just 2:30 off the podium, a result he believes augers very well for 2017.
By Brian Canty
Dan Martin has reflected on his Tour de France with a huge amount of pride in himself and his team.
The Etixx-QuickStep man also said that having come through the three weeks rarely outside the top 10 on general classification gives him the confidence that he can get onto the podium in 2017.
“Obviously I was very aggressive in this race,” he said.
“I know the team is proud of how I rode, we have someone in the top 10 and it’s something to celebrate.
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“I was a little bit sick in the middle week in Ventoux (stage 12) and the (first) time-trial (stage 13) and that’s why I lost the time.
“I didn’t know it at the time which is actually a good sign because in previous years whenever I had a little sickness my body just stopped completely and I lost 30 minutes.
“It’s a good sign that my body fought back, I didn’t even know until afterwards that I was sick but now I know what the feeling is like that I realised I was not 100%,” he added.
It’s been a huge “learning process” this year with the change to Etixx-QuickStep coming after an entire career spent at Cannondale in its various guises.
The time-trials are one area where Martin has made huge improvements but he knows if he is to challenge the podium he must shave further seconds off his times against the clock.
“Starting back in December it’s been a really big learning process for me,” he continued.
“This is my first grand tour with the team, my first Tour (de France) with the team and also the first grand tour riding general classification as a focus so it’s been a really big learning thing.
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“You always make mistakes when you’re learning but we’re definitely going to come back next year stronger.
“We’ve seen as the race has gone on that the staff have seen how I work and it works both ways; I need to learn the processes of the team and they need to understand me better as well.
“Next year we’ll come back much better prepared, I know already there are things I need to work on to really aim for the podium in the Tour de France next year.
“I’ve seen I’m climbing with the best, I can work with Specialized on my time-trial ability because that’s where I lost the time this year.
“If we didn’t have the time-trials I’d be on - or very close to the podium. There’s still one day to go but I’m already focussed on next year.”
Yesterday’s grueller in the Alps was all about consolidating his ninth place, which he managed to do.
Martin was among the very best on the steepest climbs and was rarely found wanting when the road pitched up. A similar parcours next year allied with an improvement in his efforts against the clock could see him go even higher than ninth.
“It was always going to be a hard stage; I was happy to get the first climb finished before the rain came because when the rain did come it was super cold and when it wasn’t raining it was warm and I was forever taking the jacket on and off.
“Luckily I had Tony (Martin) and Julian Vermotte with me to help me.
“In the end I couldn’t do any more than hang on, it was not attacking yesterday, it was just conserving my place.”
And had he been a few seconds quicker, he could have been even higher than ninth.
“If I knew I wasn’t six seconds from seventh place maybe I wouldn’t have been so aggressive and I’d have waited to attack in the last kilometre a couple of times but you never know how the race will be.
“87 hours of racing and 13 seconds separates four riders, nobody can predict that, luckily we’re not last of those four riders, we’re in the middle!”
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