Did Tony Martin screw himself?

[Lexman]

I was a bit dispoointed seeing him doing a short leadout of the bunch whil preparing the sprint in the morning stage of De Panne, normally he could keep on going for quite some time but yesterday morning he did about 300 meters and let the train go, did he wanted to spare himself for the ITT in the afternoon?

 

[Bushman]

I think his main problem is that he lost a lot of explosive power over the last couples of years. Probably a combination of aging (I know he isn't "old", but still) and focussing a lot on it's. When he was younger he had some decent results on not too hard uphill finishes and in lesser groups but nowadays he doesn't seem to have much of a kick. He has lots of raw power which is why he is effective in a leadout train for instance, but he doesn't have a strong acceleration and he also doesnt see to like continuous efforts at close to maximum. That is a problem as a climber as well as a classics rider.

 

[Pentacycle]

Re:

Problem for Tony is there see, less and less ITT in stage races, so he has to try and get results elsewhere I guess

The Giro would've been a perfect target this year for stage wins. Unfortunately he (or his team) has no interest there.

Classics are not his thing at all, he's like an EBH with a much worse accelleration. Guy's too good to be a domestique, please go back to being a pure TT'er/stage hunter!

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Re:

Let's see what Bavarianrider thinks about this. As far as I can tell, I think he may be saving his best form for later this year - for the Worlds and Olympics. So I would not panic just yet.

He already stated that the Rio course is too difficult for him. He will ride there, but thinks that guys like Froome will be too strong.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Sadly it seems that Tonys days as an elite rider are over.
The decline was already noticeable last year and it's going even more downhill now. He is still a very good Time Trialer, but not an exceptional as he used to be. He's not nearly as good on hills/mountains any more either.
The idea of turning Tony into a classic rider was ludariss right from the beginning. He's a horribe bike handler, has zero race isnticts and is not very explosive. Not excactly the best combination for the classics.
I fear the 2014 Tour was the last time we saw Tony on top of his game. It's over. He'll be a ecent guy for a few years to come but his days as a great rider are over. He won't win gold in Rio either.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Re:

Didn't Tony Martin stop riding for GC in the Tour after the first mountain stage sometime around 2010? All I remember in the Tours was him being the engine behind Cav's leadout for HTC in the final 5K. I know he won a flattish Paris Nice that had a TT, other than that I am confused by the timeline of the OP, as he was done trying GC before he started to win the Worlds TTs. The classics is a now two month old effort.

2011 eleven hat was. He had targeted the Top 10 that year. In 2013 he picked up GC talk again but skipped it quickly again.

 

[ferryman]

Love Martin. Mulhouse 2014, seeing him in the flesh TT'n past with about 500 metres to go was something to behold!!

 

[Cannibal72]

Time to give this thread a bump, I feel.

 

[May0maniac]

I have to eat crow, I didn't think that he could become a Roubaix rider, but that was just awesome. I always thought that he was one of the few riders who could win LBL with a long range attack, but I never thought that he'd be a Roubaix rider, I never viewed him as a great bike handler.
If he's able reach his 2013 shape (or his 2014 TdF) for a future edition of Paris-Roubaix he'll wreck people.
Chapeau!

 

[Cannibal72]

Then, remember how instead of wanting to become a classics rider, he tried to become a GT rider?

I honestly don't remember this at all - have you got a quote for it? He's pretty much been an out and out time trial specialist for the last 4-5 years. He never talked about losing weight to climb better or anything like that.

RA:...We asked “what do you want to do?”

Because from the pure power he has, he probably could win Paris-Roubaix, but he just has no interest in that. He wants to become a GC rider. He really wants to ride for GC in stage races. It just makes no sense to send you to Harelbeke or De Panne, so we build you slowly for the Tour.

He didn’t have to confirm his form for the Tour. It’s his first Tour, we don’t really expectations, if he doesn’t finish in the top 10 now, we’re disappointed, or if doesn’t win the white jersey, we’re disappointed. If he cracks tomorrow, it’s fine. It’s his first Tour, then we come back and try to do better. There’s nothing to lose for him. He’s won so much; it’s already a good Tour for him, no matter what happens.

VN: So the white jersey is right there for the taking?

RA: The plan was to come here and try to win the white jersey. That’s the logical step.

While the interview is in the context of the Tour, 'stage races' rather implies one-week races, where he has been rather successful. I'm unconvinced he ever really tried to be a GT contender. I do think he's wasting himself on the cobbles, though, and that he'd make a decent medium-mountain rider, but I'm not sure there's enough races for them anymore.

(In answer to the thread's question; no, it's anatomically impossible. I think.)

His DS was much more astute than I was.

 

[robin440]

lets now see what he can do in rio and doha