Heading into the final part of the Vuelta a España, Irish rider Dan Martin regards this year’s race as an indication that he can become a contender for the Grand Tours. He finished 53rd and 57th in the 2009 Vuelta and 2010 Giro respectively, but this year’s Spanish tour has seen him ride with much more consistency. He started today’s stage to Peña Cabarga in 15th place overall, and said he was feeling strong.
Given that Martin turned 25 on the day the race started, he is still a young rider and has ample room for improvement.
“It’s been encouraging, for sure,” he told VeloNation yesterday evening. “Everybody has been saying it’s such a hard race this year. You have had to be at the front. Before it has always been the psychological side of a Grand Tour that has been my weakness, rather than physical. So I’ve been really happy at how psychologically I have been putting myself through the pain every single day.
“That is definitely something that bodes well for the future and my body seems to be reacting well as well. My recovery is still really good and I still feel good on the bike after 16 stages. That’s definitely promising.”
Martin had previously proved his ability as a pro with a number of good wins, including Italian one day races plus the 2010 Tour of Poland. He’s moved up a level in Spain, winning stage nine of the race, and said that he planned to ride aggressively on today’s final stage.
“Things have gone well and I’m still feeling really good,” he said. “As I said from the start, I am mainly looking at stages [rather than concentrating on GC – ed.] and tomorrow’s suits me. I felt really good today after the rest day and I will hopefully give it a go tomorrow.”
Martin rode aggressively on the stage he won, the climb to La Covatilla. He had the confidence to attack early on, and the strength to hang in there after he and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas Cannondale) were caught by several chasers behind, including a flying Bradley Wiggins. He then darted clear inside the final 500 metres, grabbing the victory.
That has been a breakthrough moment for him, in terms of confidence. “I would have taken your hand off for a stage win beforehand,” he admitted. “It was great and a great experience, and great for my confidence as well. I have got a big confidence boost in terms of GC, the way I have been riding even after two and a half weeks. If you even take only a couple of minutes off my terrible time trial and I would be top ten, so for the future that is something.
“The time trial is something that I haven’t really worked on at all, so there is a lot of progression to be made there. That bodes well for the future.”
As was the case with his first cousin Nicolas Roche in last year’s race, Martin doesn’t have a time trial bike to train on at home. That’s one improvement that can be made, and so too extended time on the machine in order to enable his body to adopt to the position.
He accepts that he needs to work hard in that area. “My back and glutes just locked up towards the end. Normally I do well in shorter time trials of 15 to 20 minutes, and in the team time trial I felt really good on the bike. I have felt good in shorter time trials this year. But just spending an hour in that position, my body didn’t quite like it because I haven’t trained enough on the bike. I’ll have to spend time doing that in order to improve, and will discuss it with my coach in the winter.”
Martin said that prior to today’s stage, he was going to give it everything on the final climb. He realised that if things go well, he should move further up the general classification. “I am just going to shoot for the stage and the GC will look after itself,” he said, making it clear that he was thinking about the day’s success more than his final position in Madrid. “Everyone is at a similar level of fatigue now. This week you might see a couple of guys imploding with sickness or extreme fatigue. It is not really going to be me making a difference, it is going to be guys showing weakness. I might even show weakness myself.
“Anyway, I will just try to take the stage and if there is any movement on GC, we will look at that on Sunday.”
Whatever happens, though, it’s clear his overall performance shows that he should be able to challenge in three week races in the future. He’ll be a year older and stronger next season, and can expect to step up a level again.