Dan Martin discussion thread

[rghysens]

Well well well maybe the guy can be a contender for the Tour.

Not in a Tour with 35km TTT, 20km of cobbles and an ITT to finish it.

 

[SafeBet]

Great win today. Nice to see him back to a high level.
That first week could be a killer for his Tour chances though.

 

[Jspear]

Well he’ll make things somewhat fun to watch at least. He’ll need to gain time and he’s a rider who tries so that’s good.

 

[drebelo]

Well well well maybe the guy can be a contender for the Tour.

Not in a Tour with 35km TTT, 20km of cobbles and an ITT to finish it.

Well im not saying he will win it, but the guy as guts to attack and definetely with this shape can figth with the best in the mountains, although I recognize that TT's and roubaix willl hurt him bad

 

[movingtarget]

Not the type to sit back. He was looking good before the crash in last year's Tour.

 

[Gigs_98]

Martin is really getting better and better as a climber but the problem is, he will probably never be the kind of climber who gains a minute on everyone on a mtf. And considering his team and his own TT abilitity gaining seconds here and there won't be enough.

 

[pastronef]

today he was 1 minute faster than Froome 2013 Valmorel

https://www.twitter.com/faustocoppi60/status/1005150599460151296

 

[Valv.Piti]

Martin is really getting better and better as a climber but the problem is, he will probably never be the kind of climber who gains a minute on everyone on a mtf. And considering his team and his own TT abilitity gaining seconds here and there won't be enough.

Nope. In hindsigt, the Giro + Vuelta would have made much more sense this year - I believe Martin was capable of a podium in Italy and actually in with a shot to win the Vuelta, think Aru 2015, maybe a little worse.

Will probably attack a lot, miss a few close stage wins and finish 6th.

 

[Leinster]

Martin is really getting better and better as a climber but the problem is, he will probably never be the kind of climber who gains a minute on everyone on a mtf. And considering his team and his own TT abilitity gaining seconds here and there won't be enough.

Nope. In hindsigt, the Giro + Vuelta would have made much more sense this year - I believe Martin was capable of a podium in Italy and actually in with a shot to win the Vuelta, think Aru 2015, maybe a little worse.

Will probably attack a lot, miss a few close stage wins and finish 6th.

He’s always skipped the Giro because he doesn’t think he can peak for the Ardennes and then be ready for a GT so soon after. The only time he’s done it since he started winning big races and can pick his schedule was when it started in Ireland; and he duly crashed out in the opening TTT. Also, UAE promised the Giro to Aru this year.

He’ll probably ride the Vuelta this year; I think his back injury from the Tour was his main reason for not doing it last year.

 

[Leinster]

2, 1, 3 over 3 days and up to 4th on GC with 1 stage left.

 

[SafeBet]

Hard to take a minute on Yates tomorrow, but not impossible. UAE looked good today with both Conti and Ravasi with Dan on the final climb.

 

[Leinster]

Conti 10th on the day. I think that’s the first time Martin’s had a teammate in the top 10 with him since Alaphilippe in Paris-Nice last year.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

Conti 10th on the day. I think that’s the first time Martin’s had a teammate in the top 10 with him since Alaphilippe in Paris-Nice last year.

Conti is actually a really good climber, last year he did a good Tour de Suisse after riding a pretty decent Giro, 12th on gc in a hard TdS after riding the Giro isn't bad for a rider like him, he has the potential to be a Diego Rosa like rider (we're talking about Astana Diego Rosa)

 

[RedheadDane]

He... didn't even realise he'd fractured his back last year?
I'd think the fact that he barely was able to walk would've been a clue.

 

[Leinster]

Obviously it was a clue that something was wrong, but he never got a clear diagnosis until weeks after the Tour.

I’m not sure why they didn’t have a clear scan of his injuries before then. Maybe the fracture wasn’t visible until later. Maybe they chose not to scan him while the race was still going.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Obviously it was a clue that something was wrong, but he never got a clear diagnosis until weeks after the Tour.

I’m not sure why they didn’t have a clear scan of his injuries before then. Maybe the fracture wasn’t visible until later. Maybe they chose not to scan him while the race was still going.

It was an incredible ride by Martin. He was getting around like a cripple. I was sure he was going to pull out of the race. It was a shame cause he was riding so well.

 

[Leinster]

Apparently Vaughters was saying the other day that a problem they had when Martin was at Garmin was he would sit too far back in the pack on road stages. And when you look at his results in sprint stages he’s always in 60th or 70th place, compared to Froome who’s never outside top 30, or Valverde who’s always top 20.
So a couple of times this week he got caught behind splits in the bunch and his team had to chase, and then today he got caught up in a back-50 crash. With 20km to go, he really ought to have been in the front 50. Also, who knows how much the chases of the past couple of days affected his team’s freshness and ability to bring him back in.

 

[movingtarget]

Looked like a heavy fall. Tomorrow just got tougher.

 

[Inquitus]

It's going to be hard with the TT now for the GC, but he might have the freedom to hunt a stage or two

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Apparently Vaughters was saying the other day that a problem they had when Martin was at Garmin was he would sit too far back in the pack on road stages. And when you look at his results in sprint stages he’s always in 60th or 70th place, compared to Froome who’s never outside top 30, or Valverde who’s always top 20.
So a couple of times this week he got caught behind splits in the bunch and his team had to chase, and then today he got caught up in a back-50 crash. With 20km to go, he really ought to have been in the front 50. Also, who knows how much the chases of the past couple of days affected his team’s freshness and ability to bring him back in.

Christian Vande Velde also talked about this today. He said when they raced together at Garmin (Slipstream) that Dan was always at the back and had issues with this. He was saying that in situations like today he'd make sure he was at least in the front half of the peloton and use just a bit extra energy to ensure that, while Dan would be a good bit further back.

However, I wouldn't necessarily use Valverde as an example of a GC rider being so high up on sprint stages because if the finish is technical enough he's more than willing to actually mix it up with the sprinters as he did in stage 2 to get a top 10 finish and in stage 1 of Catalonia this year where he actually won the field sprint. In this case, I'd say Froome is the better example to use.

 

[GuyIncognito]

I miss the days when Indurain and Pantani would get in on the bunch sprint

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

Apparently Vaughters was saying the other day that a problem they had when Martin was at Garmin was he would sit too far back in the pack on road stages. And when you look at his results in sprint stages he’s always in 60th or 70th place, compared to Froome who’s never outside top 30, or Valverde who’s always top 20.
So a couple of times this week he got caught behind splits in the bunch and his team had to chase, and then today he got caught up in a back-50 crash. With 20km to go, he really ought to have been in the front 50. Also, who knows how much the chases of the past couple of days affected his team’s freshness and ability to bring him back in.

Christian Vande Velde also talked about this today. He said when they raced together at Garmin (Slipstream) that Dan was always at the back and had issues with this. He was saying that in situations like today he'd make sure he was at least in the front half of the peloton and use just a bit extra energy to ensure that, while Dan would be a good bit further back.

However, I wouldn't necessarily use Valverde as an example of a GC rider being so high up on sprint stages because if the finish is technical enough he's more than willing to actually mix it up with the sprinters as he did in stage 2 to get a top 10 finish and in stage 1 of Catalonia this year where he actually won the field sprint. In this case, I'd say Froome is the better example to use.

A little note on Valverde: It's more than two years since he finished outside top 50 in a race and he hasn't been outside top 100 since 2012. The guy just never relents, does he?

 

[yetiyeti]

Re: Re:

Apparently Vaughters was saying the other day that a problem they had when Martin was at Garmin was he would sit too far back in the pack on road stages. And when you look at his results in sprint stages he’s always in 60th or 70th place, compared to Froome who’s never outside top 30, or Valverde who’s always top 20.
So a couple of times this week he got caught behind splits in the bunch and his team had to chase, and then today he got caught up in a back-50 crash. With 20km to go, he really ought to have been in the front 50. Also, who knows how much the chases of the past couple of days affected his team’s freshness and ability to bring him back in.

Christian Vande Velde also talked about this today. He said when they raced together at Garmin (Slipstream) that Dan was always at the back and had issues with this. He was saying that in situations like today he'd make sure he was at least in the front half of the peloton and use just a bit extra energy to ensure that, while Dan would be a good bit further back.

However, I wouldn't necessarily use Valverde as an example of a GC rider being so high up on sprint stages because if the finish is technical enough he's more than willing to actually mix it up with the sprinters as he did in stage 2 to get a top 10 finish and in stage 1 of Catalonia this year where he actually won the field sprint. In this case, I'd say Froome is the better example to use.

A little note on Valverde: It's more than two years since he finished outside top 50 in a race and he hasn't been outside top 100 since 2012. The guy just never relents, does he?

Wow, that's impressive. Fitness, bike handling, and pride.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Apparently Vaughters was saying the other day that a problem they had when Martin was at Garmin was he would sit too far back in the pack on road stages. And when you look at his results in sprint stages he’s always in 60th or 70th place, compared to Froome who’s never outside top 30, or Valverde who’s always top 20.
So a couple of times this week he got caught behind splits in the bunch and his team had to chase, and then today he got caught up in a back-50 crash. With 20km to go, he really ought to have been in the front 50. Also, who knows how much the chases of the past couple of days affected his team’s freshness and ability to bring him back in.

Christian Vande Velde also talked about this today. He said when they raced together at Garmin (Slipstream) that Dan was always at the back and had issues with this. He was saying that in situations like today he'd make sure he was at least in the front half of the peloton and use just a bit extra energy to ensure that, while Dan would be a good bit further back.

However, I wouldn't necessarily use Valverde as an example of a GC rider being so high up on sprint stages because if the finish is technical enough he's more than willing to actually mix it up with the sprinters as he did in stage 2 to get a top 10 finish and in stage 1 of Catalonia this year where he actually won the field sprint. In this case, I'd say Froome is the better example to use.

A little note on Valverde: It's more than two years since he finished outside top 50 in a race and he hasn't been outside top 100 since 2012. The guy just never relents, does he?

Wow, that's impressive. Fitness, bike handling, and pride.

I'm not really surprised about that stat, even as crazy as it is. When he shows up to a race, he's there to race. The cobbled race earlier this year is a great example of that. Several GC guys were sent to cobbled races and only he and Nibali actually went to race.

 

[happytramp]

Mixed couple of days. Obviously yesterday was a disaster but today he was fantastic... Never lost contact with the GC guys and even pushed on at the front towards the end... Great result given he could have expected to lose time even without his injuries from yesterday. Clearly in great form.