Almost never raced passively if he had the legs, and often when he didn't. Great career overall with some huge wins.
- Jan 4, 2020
- 6,327
- 7,737
- 16,180
Peloton without Dan Martin? Weird.
- Feb 20, 2012
- 53,942
- 44,327
- 28,180
Wow, didn't expect this, but mostly cause I don't really think about Dan Martin. Great career nevertheless, arguably one that some more talented riders can envy.
Daniel Martinez at your service
Won pretty much everything he could possibly have won with the exeption of Fleche due to the dreaded Ala/Valverde combo
Stage wins and top 10s overall in all 3 grand tours
Liege
Lombardia
Catalunya
Stage wins and top 10s overall in all 3 grand tours
Liege
Lombardia
Catalunya
Interesting that he’s retiring in a situation where there is certainly a lot of money on the table if he would extend with ISN. He’s the only one of the highly paid old men they signed who has produced the goods and they have essentially bottomless pockets. On the other hand, he probably has quite a bit of money already, after a long career near the top, finishing with contracts with UAE and ISN. And it seems he has business ventures already underway.
And of course his Giro showed both that he still has it physically (his stage win) and that he doesn’t have the mental commitment of old (the sterrato stage and comments afterward).
And of course his Giro showed both that he still has it physically (his stage win) and that he doesn’t have the mental commitment of old (the sterrato stage and comments afterward).
- Mar 13, 2015
- 7,658
- 3,422
- 23,180
- Apr 13, 2021
- 7,472
- 19,563
- 17,180
He definitely had the strength to win fleche a couple of years but not the positioning.
- Jul 16, 2015
- 5,374
- 13,954
- 23,180
Dan Martin was still one of their better riders.
He achieved something in the Giro this year & Vuelta last year (stage wins in a GT) which ISN's number one highest paid rider cannot even dream of right now.
He seems to be heading off to be the front man for a venture capital fund focused on sport. I doubt if it has anything to do with his notoriously profligate team low balling their only big winner
- Nov 16, 2013
- 26,686
- 27,791
- 28,180
- Apr 30, 2011
- 47,181
- 29,829
- 28,180
- Nov 16, 2013
- 26,686
- 27,791
- 28,180
Maybe but then he still had Purito to beat in 2012. I guess 2013 was a possibility (I don't remember the specifics of that finish orher than Moreno winning) but after Valverde began winning it again, he didn't have a chance.
- Apr 13, 2021
- 7,472
- 19,563
- 17,180
Watch 2017, Martin was faster than Bala but unlike Bala couldn't position himself at the front at the bottom of the climb. He definitely had the legs to beat Valverde that year but wasted them.
He could have won more if he hadn’t wasted so much effort on Tour GC in the middle and later periods of his career. Tilting at that windmill shapes your whole season.
- Nov 16, 2013
- 26,686
- 27,791
- 28,180
Watch 2017 Catalunya, stage 3 and 7 and LBL, and come telling me again how Martin was superior to Valverde at that point in time.
- Apr 13, 2021
- 7,472
- 19,563
- 17,180
Man your bizarre desire to defend Valverde as the greatest punchuer of all time is irrelevant to this discussion.
Are you a Valverde's wife?
I said Dan Martin had the strengt to win Fleche Wallonne a couple of times if he was better positioned. 2017 was a good example, he could challenge Valverde if he was on his wheel. He wasted it.
I didn't say anything about who was better puncheur throughout 2017 or overall, or anything about Volta Catalunya. Not sure what you're talking about.
I'm talking about 1 day at 1 race.
- Nov 16, 2013
- 26,686
- 27,791
- 28,180
Yes but three times in the month surrounding that race, Valverde crushed Martin, so he would hardly have been beaten that day, either. Valverde was unbeatable in the spring of 2017. No reason to get personal, just because I prove you wrong.
Also, a bit strange that such accusations come from the guy who makes the most bizarre comments about how Masnada is the best rider of all time...
- Nov 6, 2020
- 964
- 1,251
- 7,180
One of the most entertaining riders, he often was the first few to attack on the first TdF mountain stage, shame he used to fade on longer climbs later in the race although he did seem to be improving at this post lockdown. I expected him to do a few more years.
He had issues getting a full run at it in his Garmin years, he'd always get sick late on in the race. So I think it's fair enough that he had a go at finishing as high on GC as he could. He still got his Mur de Bretagne stage win while also getting a top 10.
If he hadn't fractured a vertebra, and his team not been half-built for Kittel to win bunch sprints, he could definitely have made the podium in 2017.
The only thing I'd question about his career is how come he never went for the KOM jersey. It should have been an obvious target for a guy who could do long breakaways and hard uphill kicks.
To be honest, I don’t think anyone has any real business targeting Tour GC until they’ve reached a minimum level of TT competence unless they are an absolute outlandish freak climber. I don’t even mean that they have to be good TTists, just barely Ok.
Guys shaping their whole season around a futile attempt to come third in a race doesn’t sit well with me, for all that I know that the compensation and publicity structures of the sport encourage it. In a saner world, his season should have been all about one day races, a few one week races with no TT and stage hunting at GTs.
He wasn't shaping his whole season around it; he did the Ardennes basically every year until this year, had Dauphine podiums, etc. He had targets, just like every rider does.
The years he went for GC barely had any TT kms, so it wasn't unreasonable. And he still picked up 5 GT stage wins in his career, so it's not as if his GC aspirations held back. On 4 of those 5 stage wins, it either moved him into the top 10, or he ended up finishing the race in the top 10.
There are only 2 or 3 (in a good year) riders with a realistic chance of winning on the start line of any GT, so I'm actually quite glad that a lot of others, like Martin, don't go in with a "win it or nothing" mentality. When I started watching cycling, even a top 20 in the TdF was a considerable achievement. If everybody who couldn't win the yellow jersey just settled for stage hunting, the GC battle would get very boring, very quickly.
Besides which, it's not as if Martin is the kind of guy who sits in 7th place, closing down 8th, 9th and 10th; he attacks the guys in 5th and 6th, and then happily works with 1st or 2nd to put time into 3r or 4th.
- May 25, 2018
- 2,419
- 2,607
- 17,180
Given the massive weight that the TdF has in Ireland a polkadot jersey would have (sadly) been worth more to people than his amazing monument wins. Fair play to him if he just doesn't care what the general public think but it must have been tempting
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