Dan Martin looked back to his old self on the final climb of stage 4 at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (2.Pro).
Though he did not finish on the podium he was arguably the strongest climber on the summit finish aside from stage winner and overall leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates).
Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) has just come out of a two-year period with UAE Team Emirates that yield mixed form and patchy results.
His first season there saw him take a stage at win and 4th overall at Critérium du Dauphiné and a stage win and 8th overall at the Tour de France.
Last year, however, was more disappointing; Martin's challenge at the Tour collapsing amid reports of poor preparation within the team, though that was denied by management.
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Though it is still very early days in 2020, he looked in great shape today and full of riding; prepared to take it up to hunt down Pogačar.
The 21-year-old had attacked with almost 3km of climbing remaining on the 5km climb to the summit finish at the end of 170km of racing from Calp to Altea-Sierra de Bernia.
Pogačar never gained much more than 10 seconds on the strongest climbers behind and was initially chased down by a small group that included Wout Poels (Bahrain-McLaren) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Ineos).
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Dan Martin was just behind that small group with race leader Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott) but the Irishman closed the gap to them and then rode away from them.
As the finish neared it was Pogačar leading on his own from Martin, who was also solo, with Poels next on the road.
However, Poels then caught Martin and attacked him, though none of the chasers could catch Pogačar, who added victory today to the win he had taken on stage 2 and regained the race lead in the process.
Just seven seconds behind the winner the next four strongest regrouped just before the line; Poels taking 2nd from Geoghegan Hart, Martin and Haig.
Those four were all six seconds down on Pogačar, with the next man to finish, Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-McLaren) some 23 seconds down.
Pogačar now leads overall by six seconds from Haig and Geoghegan Hart, who are both equal on time.
Then comes Dan Martin in 4th place some 13 seconds having lost seven seconds to a gap in the bunch during the bunch finish yesterday.
With a flat stage to come tomorrow to conclude the race, it will be very hard for Martin to gain the time need to lift him one place higher overall and onto the final podium.
However, after an indifferent season last year the first very early signs suggest that a change of scenery - and a change to training more on feel than data - may be helping him back on track.
He was clearly in very good form today and was mentally on the offensive on the final climb on a day when few in the sport could have lived with Pogačar.
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