Vaughters says Dan Martin won’t be “much of a factor at all” at Vuelta | Sticky Bottle

Jonathan Vaughters has rattled through the Vuelta form book for today's stage 13 TT, and the knock-on implications for the general classification. He doesn't see Dan Martin as a factor. The Irish rider is, of course, a podium rival of Hugh Carthy who riders for EF Pro Cycling which is headed by Vaughters (Photo: Cor Vos)

Jonathan Vaughters, the boss at EF Pro Cycling, believes his rider Hugh Carthy can do much better than expected at today’s Vuelta TT and believes Dan Martin won’t be “much of a factor at all”.

Vaughters knows Martin well as he managed him for most of
his career to date – 8½ seasons to be precise – at the Garmin Sharp team, in
its various guises between 2007 and 2015.

Carthy won Sunday’s stage 12 to the summit of the Angliru
with a brilliant solo attack and also took a 10-second time bonus.

That result meant he dislodged Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) from 3rd overall.

*Dan Martin has been in fantastic form but now needs to pull the TT of his life out of the bag, though the discipline has never been the strongest part of his arsenal*

Ahead of today’s mainly flat stage 13 TT, some 33.7km
from Muros to Mirador de Ézaro, Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) leads the
race by just 10 seconds from Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma).

Carthy is next, some 32 seconds off the leader’s jersey,
with Martin hot on his heels at 35 seconds.

The gaps in the general classification are then bigger after the top four; Enric Mas (Movistar) is 5th at 1:50 and then Wout Poels (Bahrain McLaren) is 6th some 5:13 down.

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The race for victory looks like a fight between Carapaz
and Roglic while the final step on the podium looks like it will be fought out
between Carthy, Martin and Mas.

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A breakaway, or an implosion by any of those top five riders, is possible of course. And if that were to happen it would rip up the current script.

Hugh Carthy takes a superb solo win on Sunday on the summit of the famed Angliru. His team boss Jonathan Vaughters says the British rider is under-rated in the TT and believes he can threaten Richard Carapaz and Primoz Roglic (Photo: Gomez Sport)

Vaughters said Carthy was clearly going well, can do much
better in today’s TT than many believe and he also feels Roglic may fade in the
coming week.

“He’s done a lot of specific work in time trialing and he’s a very under-rated TT rider,” Vaughters said of Carthy.

He added a short technical test would not suit Carthy but the 33.7km TT to come, with a climb at the end, was very much to his liking.

“I think the two top guys have a little bit more to worry
about than they might know,” he said of his expectation that Carthy can now
challenge Roglic and Carapaz.

He added the TT would largely come down to who had best
recovered after yesterday’s rest day and that Carthy had mainly lost time so
far due to inexperience.

“I think he’s going to recover really well for the time
trial,” Vaughters said. “I think Roglic shows signs of cracking. He’s had a
long season and historically he always fades in the final week of Grand Tours.”

Vaughters believed Roglic may not be as good as people
expect in the TT, due to that fatigue he feels Roglic has already begun to
display.

“Carapaz is a little bit of a wild card for me. I don’t quite know how well he’s going to go in the TT. I think he’ll be recovered but he’s less of a good time trial rider on paper,” added Vaughters.

“Dan Martin; I don’t really view as much of a factor at all. So I am cautiously optimistic that Hugh could pull off something really special in the time trial and then we’ll see from there.”