Roche & Martin come through Tirreno in good shape; neo pro Bennett earning his spurs

Nicolas Roche has been using races like Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour of Oman (above) to build form towards leading his team in the Giro, just like cousin Dan Martin

Dan Martin, Nicolas Roche and Sam Bennett have emerged with a week of very hard racing under their belts and having inched closer to their goals after Tirreno-Adriatico, which concluded in Italy today, Tuesday.

For Martin, the race represented his first competitive outing of the season and he spent his time working for Garmin-Sharp team leader for the week, Andrew Talansky.

He will not be too fussed by the time loss on the mountain stages on Saturday and Sunday, where he relinquished 8:14 and 16:51 respectively to stage winner on both days Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo).

Many of the riders in the event already had a full month's racing under their belts and Martin told stickybottle last week that his early season is geared towards a good ride in the Giro, a race in which he looks set to be a podium challenger and possibly an outright winner.

Next up for him is the Volta a Catalunya, where last year he won the hardest stage and the overall. That started the ball rolling on what was an amazing year for him, at the end of which he was ranked 9th in the world.

That ranking could have been much higher had he not fallen ill in the last week of the Tour de France after winning a mountain stage and been forced out of the Vuelta after a bad crash that hit hard the remainder of his season.

For Roche, with Contador having won two stages and the overall, the week was a great success from a team perspective. Unlike Martin, he already has a number of races in his legs this season including the testing Tour of Oman.

However, having been hampered for 10 weeks in the off season by a knee injury, he is chasing condition in order that he can be in top shape to lead his team in the Giro.

He put in a pretty decent ride on Saturday's queen stage in Italy, losing just 2:29 to Contador though relinquishing a heftier 17:35 the following day.

However, he will be more concerned that his knee holds up after such a difficult week and with the run in to the Giro, which starts in Belfast on May 9th, now well underway.

Sam Bennett managed to take a fantastic 4th place in the bunch sprint that settled stage 2; a very promising sign in his first race at WorldTour level.

By his own admission, in an interview with stickybottle yesterday, he suffered really badly on Saturday's 244km queen stage; losing 32:03 after being dropped by the grupetto and limping home for more than two hours of racing near the very back of the race.

“I rode until I blew on the climb when the grupetto was already gone,” he said.

“So then I had absolutely nothing in the legs and still eight kilometres of that climb and another 70km to the finish with the last 9km up another climb. My legs just wouldn’t turn anymore.

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“But my teammate Paul Voss stayed with me. He’s the one that got me to the finish these last two days and I’d like to thank him big time.”

However, Bennett is obviously a sprinter and the fact he could suffer on those mountains and get through that stage is very promising towards his possible selection for the Tour de France in July; a race where such suffering on the climbs may bring great prizes in the flatter stages that follow for a man with his talents.

On Sunday in Italy he was in better shape, starting the final 30 percent climb of Muro di Guardigrele in the 70 strong grupetto, alongside the rest of the sprinters.

He will have learned a huge amount from the race, with weeks like the past one in Tirreno-Adriatico exactly the kind of racing he needs to endure to become a much better rider and one of the best sprinters in the world.

Dan Martin has his first race under his belt and the first mountains of 2014 in his legs. Now he faces the Volta a Catalunya next week, a race he won last year. Seen above on the way to victory on the queen stage of that race last year as well as the leader's white jersey.

Nicolas Roche, fourth from left, toasting his team's and Alberto Contador's success of the past week.

March 12^th-18^th: Tirreno-Adriatico (WorldTour)

March 18, Stage 7: San Benedetto del Tronto, 9.1km TT

Final General Classification