Dan Martin has explained his 'Punch and Judy' exchanges with Tadej Pogačar on Twitter stem from their first meeting when the then teenager showed up at a UAE Team Emirates training camp - the year before he joined the team. Pogačar was the only rider willing and able to attack the Irishman on the climbs.
The now retired Irish pro said even back then Pogačar showed "a different" mentality. And though Martin had just signed for UAE Team Emirates as its leader, and Pogačar was an unknown amateur rider who was not even going to race with the pros that year, Martin said he struggled to stay on Pogačar's wheel.
Martin added while he tried to keep the two-time Tour de France winner level-headed and "take him down a notch every now and again" he was mostly failing as Pogačar always came back at him so hard.
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However, it is clear from Martin's remarks the relationship is a close one, with the former Irish international explaining he tried to mentor Pogačar from the time of their first meeting.
Martin first became acquainted with Pogačar in January, 2018, when the Slovenian rider, then aged 19 years, joined the UAE Team Emirates squad at a team training camp.
"This little fat kid showed up from Slovenia at the training camp and, to be honest, I saw a lot of myself in him - his whole enjoyment of racing," Martin told The Cycling Podcast.
"He didn't really have that much hype around him because he was so young still. He still had another year to go in the under-23s and I didn't really know who he was or anything. He was just another trainee at training camp.
"But I did see something different. We were playing around in training camp, attacking each other a little bit, and he was literally the only guy to go over the top of me and attacking me. And that's where I saw something different. This kid was had the cheek to attack me, try to drop me, and even then I had to struggle to get back onto his wheel.
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"That's also where the whole piss-taking things started from," Martin added, saying the cutting humour and putdowns then continued between him and Pogačar into the bunch when both were riding races like the Tour de France a couple of years later.
"He'd be literally riding in the middle of the peloton, during the race, in the yellow jersey in the Tour de France and I'd just come up to him and tell him he doesn't look very good, or something like that; just to mess with him. And he's take it really lightheartedly. This is a family show so I can't use the exact terminology he'd use!"
"Having been team mates we just developed that relationship and because I knew him from an early age and acted - and I'm not taking credit - I welcomed him into the team as the big rider and this junior shows up…. I think he appreciated the fact I made an effort to contact him, talk to him, and make him feel welcome in the team knowing he'd signed for the following year."
Martin said while he and Pogačar only ever raced together at Itzulia Basque Country - where Martin was 2nd overall and Pogačar was 6th - they developed a relationship.
"I tried to advise him as much as possible in his breakthrough Vuelta that year when I gave him route knowledge from the Andorra stage which he went on to win. I knew the course like the back of my hand.
"And then from then on he didn't need any more help, he just did his own thing. I just tried to keep him level-headed and then take him down a notch every now and again. And I even fail to do that now because he just bites back harder than I can give him!"
Martin told The Cycling Podcast Pogačar was so good that the deciding factor in how long his career would continue may be how long he was willing to make the sacrifices required to stay at the top and how he cops with that intensity mentally.
"I mean, how many races do you have to win before you do need a new challenge and you do get bored? It sounds ridiculous to say that but it's only natural that hunger subsides if you keep winning the same races," Martin said, adding his team was trying to "keep it fresh" by allowing him to go to races like the Tour of Flanders.
"Getting beat in the Tour de France could actually be the thing that makes him more… that extends his career even longer. Now he's tasted defeat, he's going to come back… Does he come back better than ever because he's hungry? I think we've seen a better Tadej Pogačar since July."
