A Couple Irishmen Lead the Way (Vuelta spoiler alert)...

It was brilliant seeing the pair of Irish cousins, Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche, off the front on the final climb during stage 9 at the Vuelta a Espana today. However, their unity was short lived. Nicolas just did not have enough to keep pace with his younger cousin, and was forced to fall back to the chase group. Daniel, with his familiar bobbing style of attacking a climb, put a great amount of determination into the effort with about 5km to go. His effort eventually drew out Vincenzo Nibali, and then a select group including, Bradley Wiggins, and put race leader Joaquim Rodriguez on the ropes, and ultimately saw him fall out of the disintigrating group of chasers. Even after initiating the selection, Martin still had enough juice to sprint away from the elite group, and claim the stage, arms aloft in a V for victory salute.

As a result of his day's effort, Martin sits in 12th place on G.C., 4th place in the Points competition, leads the Mountains competition, and is 4th in the Allround competition. Not seen in the other Grand Tours, the Allround competition at the Vuelta combines a riders' placings in the other three competions (G.C., Points, Mountains) and awards the rider with the lowest combined total a special white, Allround jersey.

Big Day for Daniel Martin...

Irishman, Garmin-Cervelo rider, and defending champion, Daniel Martin took a big step in the right direction in his bid to repeat as champion of the Tour of Poland. Today was the final real chance for Martin to unseat his biggest rival, Peter Sagan, who came into the day's stage atop the overall standings. Martin produced a big effort within the final 25 km, attacking Sagan on numerous occasions, in attempts to drop the Liquigas team leader. Sagan, with the assistance of teammate, Vincenzo Nibali, neutralized most of the attacks from Martin, until with one kilometer to go, the Irishman gave one final big effort which allowed him to pull free of Sagan and the peloton for good. Sagan finished 13 seconds behind Martin, which when combined with the time bonus for first on the stage, gives Daniel a 3 second lead going into the final stage. Also in play, for the final stage is Italian racer, Marco Marcato, of the Vacansoleil-DCM team, who sits in third spot with the same time as Sagan. That is not much of a margin, and when you again factor in time bonuses, the final stage seems set for a dramatic showdown, not only between those three riders, but their teams as well.

Update: So the big day, was followed by a not quite so big day. If it was going to come down to a contest of sprints, Martin would be the clear underdog against the better sprinting Sagan, and that is how the final stage played out. Sagan, who has won the Points Competition at the Tour of California the past two years, gained two seconds back on Martin at the intermediate sprint, to close to within one second of the lead. Sagan then finished second at the end of the race (to four stage victor, Marcel Kittel) for additional time bonus, good enough to end the seven-stage race six second clear of Martin. Afterwards Martin said, "it's too bad, but I proved that I'm the strongest on climbs in one of the races I love the most. Now I hope I can improve even more as I look forward to the Vuelta."

Races to Kick-off August...

Two weeks on from the Tour, and all those riders will still be riding that wave of optimal fitness, and there are two big races on tap this weekend in which those riders can seek out a post-Tour victory. The first of these, run on Saturday, is the Clasica San Sebastian. The Clasica has been raced since 1981, and the riders standing atop its finish podium have been quite a diversely international bunch. Spanish riders have dominated recently, though, winning six of the past seven editions. Look for defending champion, Luis Leon Sanchez, and Samuel Sanchez to contest for victory. The Schleck brothers, Andy and Frank, Ivan Basso, and Philip Gilbert should be strong challengers as well.

Luis Leon Sanchez celebrates victory at the 2010 Clasica San Sebastian

The week-long Tour of Poland kicks off on Sunday. Though it is a short Tour, it has been steadily gaining in interest, if not status in the past few years. After being left off the Garmin-Cervelo squad at the Tour de France, defending champion Daniel Martin of Ireland, is my favorite to repeat. Martin will be backed by a strong support team including, Christophe Le Mevel, Heinrich Haussler, Martijn Maaskant, and Andrew Talansky. Liquigas-Cannondale will be there with Vincenzo Nibali and Peter Sagan in their ranks. Quick Step will be bringing Dario Cataldo, Kevin Seeldraeyers, Tom Boonen, among other strong riders. Those are the strongest teams as I see them, but don't discount the others, including AG2R La Mondiale, BMC, Euskaltel Euskadi, Katusha, Lampre-ISD, Leopard-Trek, Movistar, Omego Pharma-Lotto, Astana, Rabobank, Sky, HTC Highroad, Radioshack, and Saxo Bank SunGard. The Polish riders on those teams, as well as those on the two Polish wildcard teams will be racing for pride of country.

Daniel Martin celebrates with the podium girls at the 2010 Tour of Poland

Tour of California Rider Profile: Dan Martin...

If you follow the sport of cycling, you will know that Ireland is experiencing a sort of renaissance right now with a sizable group of riders possessing exceptional talent on two wheels. Counted among these names is 4th year professional Daniel Martin, of the Garmin-Cervelo Team. As is often noted, Daniel is the son of Neil Martin, who was a British amateur champion and later professional in the 1980s, nephew of the great Stephen Roche, and cousin of the current star of the AG2r Team, Nicolas Roche. There, it is out of the way, and I can now focus on the accomplishments and potential of Daniel.

The palmares:


2005   British Junior Road Race Champion (amateur)
2006   stage victory and 2nd overall at the Giro della Valle d'Aosta
            2nd in the Under 23 Irish National Road Race championships
2007 (racing as an amateur with the VC La Pomme Team)
            1st in the GP Rayol Canadel
            1st in the Tour de Savoie
            Points Classification winner at the Giro della Valle d'Aosta
            Mountains Classification winner at the Rode de I'lsard
2008 (Garmin-Chipotle)
            1st overall in the Route du Sud
            Irish National Road Race Champion
2009 (Garmin-Slipstream)
            2nd at the Volta a Catalunya
            3rd overall at the Tour Mediterraneen, and winner of the Young Rider Classification
2010 (Garmin-Transitions)
            1st at the Tre Valli Varesine
            1st overall in the Tour of Poland, with a stage win
            1st at the Japan Cup
            1st overall in the Sprint Competition, Halfords Tour Series
            2nd at the Giro dell'Emilia
2011 (Garmin-Cervelo)
            3rd overall at the Tour of Catalunya

Quite a nice tally for a first four professional years, wouldn't you agree? I think what is most telling from those stats though, is that he has won in a variety of races - sprints, points, mountains - qualities you would expect to see in an overall contender for stage race victory. Martin's Garmin-Cervelo Team is bringing a talent-packed squad to the Tour of California, including David Zabriskie, Ryder Hesjedal, who finished 7th in last years Tour de France, and current World Champion, Thor Hushovd. Any number of riders from the team could end up with a top placing. Count Daniel Martin among them as there, is no question that he possesses the qualities necessary to reach the higher levels of the sport.


Some Dan Martin on the web:


Official Dan Martin website
Pez Cycling News interview from 2008
Cycling Weekly from 2007
and the current Garmin-Cervelo website