Chapeau Danny Boy

[Pentacycle]

I remember Vaughters tweeting that one of his riders would be much better this season due to resolving a problem. I'm guessing he was referring to Martin's allergy issues.

He has great endurance and great punch/speed so we could easily see several more big wins coming down the line.

Why was he so bad in Tirreno then?

 

[jens_attacks]

How is his allergies?

he's cured like rominger

kidding

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Great first part of the season for him. He's racking up an impressive palmares. I'll always like the guy because he rides to win rather than to protect a placing.

I don't think that his allergies are "cured", by the way. They've just got a lot better at managing them, and been a bit luckier with the weather.

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

Why was he so bad in Tirreno then?

So bad? Tirreno was only a prep race for him.

 

[JRanton]

Why was he so bad in Tirreno then?

Presumably targeting Catalunya and it was his first race of the season really because Garmin had their bikes stolen at the Tour of Med. It's not like he was terrible in Tirreno either, finished 10th in Chieti, 20th overall.

 

[Pentacycle]

Presumably targeting Catalunya and it was his first race of the season really because Garmin had their bikes stolen at the Tour of Med. It's not like he was terrible in Tirreno either, finished 10th in Chieti, 20th overall.

I thought he would've done better. You know, training to race etc, like what Horner seems to have done the last two years preparing for Tirreno.

Perhaps I was a bit too optimistic about that though.

And what I failed to grasp from JV's tweet about fixing a problem was that it could've concerned Dan's allergies. Wasn't that problem already gone last year?

 

[Ruudz0r]

Why was he so bad in Tirreno then?

He got sick and missed racing days (also due to the garmin bikes stolen + due to his illness)

Dan Martin‏@DanMartin8615 februari
Bit of a relapse of whatever illness I got at med has stopped me travelling to hautvar. Feel human again today. Good luck to the boys.

Dan Martin‏@DanMartin8610 maart
235km with heaps of climbing on the menu today. Nice 2 wake up to blue sky. Yesterday was ok. Just lackng race sharpness. Not 2 far away tho

Dan Martin‏@DanMartin8610 maart
Getting better by the day here at tirreno. Hope it continues. Crazy hard day 2moro.Team have ridden so well for me. Try pay them back manana

Dan Martin‏@DanMartin8611 maart
Epic day of racing. Guys will hate me for saying it but loved every minute #mything. Cruising till I messed up gear change #doh

(This was the really hard day in Tirreno, he was at the front all day before that gearing problem)

 

[Ruudz0r]

It will also be interesting to see how he goes in Time Trials. He worked very hard on time trials in the winter of 2011 - 2012 but never really got to do a time trial in good condition last year.

The 1st flat time trial for him was in Dauphine, but he crashed really hard in stage 1 and wasnt fit after that. Then in TDF he did 2 ITTs but he was on antibiotics in the tour (although he got better at the end, but that time trial was also already pretty good for Martin). So Im curious if he can step it up another level.

 

[ruamruam]

Will Martin be the Garmin's GC leader for the Tour? Could certainly win a stage or two or the polka dot jersey or both.

 

[will10]

Garmin rarely go into the Tour with an outright leader, which is never a bad approach given the lottery the first week has become. Hesjedal was insistent he was in better shape going into the Tour than he'd been at the Giro, so I think it's fair to say barring disaster he will certainly be one of Garmin's protected riders. Martin for sure deserves a free role at least, too.

 

[Ruudz0r]

Talansky probably wants to do GC aswell. And I guess Danielson and Vandevelde will ride the tour aswell.

 

[Pentacycle]

Talansky probably wants to do GC aswell. And I guess Danielson and Vandevelde will ride the tour aswell.

Perhaps it's Martin's or Talansky's turn to ride into the top 10 for Garmin, just like Danielson, Vandevelde, Wiggins did before. However I wonder if Talansky will really perform in his Tour debut, Martin should be ready to aim for the GC.(+ deal with the Sky train)

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Perhaps it's Martin's or Talansky's turn to ride into the top 10 for Garmin, just like Danielson, Vandevelde, Wiggins did before. However I wonder if Talansky will really perform in his Tour debut, Martin should be ready to aim for the GC.(+ deal with the Sky train)

Martin's best GT GC result to date is 13th in the Vuelta. Even assuming that he's improved his TTing and that he's getting more consistent as he gets older, a top 10 would be a great result for him in the Tour. If he rides for GC at all. He's not going to be at a derailing the Sky train level this year.

 

[pastronef]

Talansky probably wants to do GC aswell. And I guess Danielson and Vandevelde will ride the tour aswell.

Vabdevelde will ride the Giro as a domestique, and I guess he'll do the same at the Tour

Martin and Talansky should fly the flag at the Tour, while Ryder will have to see how's his form after the Giro

Navardauskas Millar Zabriskie Danielson should be in for the Tour.

 

[The Hitch]

i wonder how many monuments Martin can win. the Ardennes in recent years is new kids on the block every year. Even Gilbert cant crack it. The GC guys are good one year then not anymore the next. Martin is one of the few guys consistently good at it and others like Valverde and Purito are getting old.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

We might get Martin v Betancur v Henao battles a few times. They seem to be the best of the younger guys at this stuff.

 

[The Hitch]

Don;t know about the other guys. Plenty have made good first impressions before but faded away or gone on to target moire the gts.

Anyway did Dan's victory make the news in Ireland? Would it have perchance been the main story for some papers, or like in this country, 3 inches next to the advertising section.

 

[pmcg76]

Don;t know about the other guys. Plenty have made good first impressions before but faded away or gone on to target moire the gts.

Anyway did Dan's victory make the news in Ireland? Would it have perchance been the main story for some papers, or like in this country, 3 inches next to the advertising section.

Didn't see the papers today but I think it was the 3rd or 4th item on the sports bulletin on main evening news yesterday at 6pm. Soccer, Gaelic games and Rugby will always get more coverage in Ireland unless you win the Tour, Giro or Worlds etc.

 

[Inquitus]

He made the front page

 

[williamp78]

Don;t know about the other guys. Plenty have made good first impressions before but faded away or gone on to target moire the gts.

Anyway did Dan's victory make the news in Ireland? Would it have perchance been the main story for some papers, or like in this country, 3 inches next to the advertising section.

Front page of the irish times:

https://twitter.com/nevskin/status/326302749711028224/photo/1

 

[williamp78]

He made the front page

i see that you beat me to it! And I see you couldn't work out how to rotate it either! Though at least you managed to link it properly, unlike me

 

[gooner]

Dan had a column with them during the Tour so it was no surprise to see them giving him the coverage like that.

He was on RTE radio tonight.

http://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=1:20192110:5777::

 

[Zam_Olyas]

hurling is cool ...kilkenny vs tipperary all ireland sf was good last year.

 

[gooner]

Don;t know about the other guys. Plenty have made good first impressions before but faded away or gone on to target moire the gts.

Anyway did Dan's victory make the news in Ireland? Would it have perchance been the main story for some papers, or like in this country, 3 inches next to the advertising section.

I was disappointed by the coverage. It's not everyday we have a sportsperson who achieves something on the level on this so it's particularly depressing to see this now not get the attention it deserves. All we see is Suarez this and Suarez that. RTE are a joke.

I notice this is being discussed on another Irish forum as well.

http://www.politics.ie/forum/media/209661-winning-irish-cyclist-ignored-rte-why.html

 

[Afrank]

So, Stephen Roche thinks Dan Martin is capable of winning multiples stages plus maybe the overall this Tour.

“Dan is capable of anything… of winning the Tour; more than capable of winning one, two, three stages, maybe,” he said.

“Dan is one of those riders who you don’t want to give too much time to. He’s the kind of rider on his day who can rise to the occasion. If he gets in a lucky break and gets five, 10 minutes up, it would be very hard to get them back.”

Yes, because it's very likely that the peloton will let a 10 minute break get away up the road that includes Dan Martin. As we all know those kind of breaks occur all the time in the modern era of cycling.

Personally, I could see him taking a stage (not 3 though), winning the Tour however is stretching it IMO. He'd have to be very very lucky.

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-...ng-multi-tour-de-france-stages-maybe-overall/