Dan Martin has captured by far the biggest win of his career when he proved strongest in the closing stages of Liège-Bastogne-Liège this afternoon, taking a victory that brought back the glory days from the height of the Kelly-Roche era.
Martin was absolutely masterful in the closing stages, never panicking when other big favourites attacked and simply having too much power at the end for the best riders in the world to deal with.
The Irishman's Garmin-Sharp team rode a great finale, with last year's Giro winner, Ryder Hesjedal, making it into an escape in the closing half hour of racing.
And when he was caught inside the final 5km, Martin was in the group of 12 up front. Hesjedal then drove that group on, clearly forgetting about his own chances to try and set up the Irishman for the win.
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Martin attacked with around 4km remaining but was closed down, only for Hesjedal to again drive the group on in an effort to keep it together for as long as he could.
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When Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) surged forward with 1km remaining, he got a very good gap immediately and it looked like he might have had the race won.
However, Martin simply attacked the chasers, closed up to the Spaniard, stayed with him for a while and then kicked past him in the final couple of hundred metres.
His effort put some good daylight between himself and the Spaniard, giving him plenty of time to savour the big moment and take a huge win by three seconds from last year's world No 1 at the end of a very testing and lumpy 261.5 kilometres. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) placed 3rd at eight seconds.
Martin is the second Irishman to win the race, with Sean Kelly taking victory 1984 and 1989. Today's win was the first major classics win for Ireland since Kelly won Milan-San Remo some 21 years ago in 1992.
Liège-Bastogne-Liège
1 Daniel Martin - Garmin-Sharp 6:38:07
2 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver - Katusha @3
3 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte - Movistar Team @9
4 Carlos Alberto Betancur Gomez - AG2R La Mondiale
5 Michele Scarponi - Lampre-Merida
6 Enrico Gasparotto - Astana Pro Team @18
7 Philippe Gilbert - BMC Racing Team
8 Ryder Hesjedal - Garmin-Sharp
9 Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa - Movistar Team
10 Simon Gerrans - Orica-GreenEdge
