Dan Martin has looked back on his final win as a pro rider, saying he knew it was all or nothing on that day during this year's Giro as it was his last chance to take a victory.
Martin is still on the books at Israel Start-Up Nation until the end of this year but has ridden his final race as a professional.
His victory on stage 17 at the Giro was one of his best ever as he went in the early breakaway, did most of the work and then attacked solo, holding off the best riders in the race on a brutally hard climb.
“Looking back, this is one of my most important victories but also a hugely proud moment of what we achieved that day," the now retired Martin said.
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He dropped the five other survivors from the early breakaway at the base of the final climb on the 193km stage from Canazei to Sega di Ala. Martin only had a very modest gap on the GC men when the climb began.
Both Simon Yates (BikeExchange) and João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) went for broke after Martin as Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) faltered and lost time. However, though Almeida and Yates rode hard in a bid to catch Martin and put time into Bernal, nobody could catch the Irishman.
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"We knew it was one of the last opportunities to win a stage so we made a plan and it came off despite the gaps never being too big," Martin said.
"I don’t think anybody believed that I could hold on but I just kept believing it was possible and rode tactically, monitoring the gap behind. When I did recon of the climb, I had a special feeling and I knew that it could be a special climb for me.
"Climbing solo on the steepest section with hundreds of screaming fans, for the first time since the pandemic, and then holding off to the finish and being able to really enjoy the moment.
"It was very different to my stage win in the Vuelta a España last year, when I didn’t even know that I had won! I will treasure this one.”
