Dan Martin is aiming for a podium place at this year’s Tour
‘You have to convince yourself it’s just a bike race and concentrate on being the first over the line...’
DAN MARTIN takes a slow, thoughtful sip of water as he lets all the possibilities of the coming month race across his mind. The Tour. There’s still no spectacle like it in sport. For a few hours each day, as part of the peloton, he will be able to convince himself that it’s just another bike race.
But it is not. Once off the saddle, the madness will start. Some days, life on tour can be like a zoo. Most days, it is like being in a gold-fish bowl. A reality television show you didn’t realise you had signed up for.
‘It is a roller-coaster of emotions, every day,’ Martin says, his eyes lighting up. ‘Even in the days before the race, there are crowds on the road. You want to go out for a short ride three days before it and there are 40 motorbikes following you. It is insane. And it is insane to think that there’s 5,000 vehicles going around France for this group of bike riders.
‘The best way to deal with it is to separate yourself from that. Just go into a bubble and convince yourself that it’s just a bike race and concentrate on being first across the line. But that pops as soon as you cross the line and you are exposed to the reality of all this media, all these cameras, all these people.’
Ask Martin if he enjoys the experience of the Tour and a small smile appears on his face. His feelings are love/hate. He spent his maiden tour in 2012 in a state of shock, such was its intensity. By the time he had missed the 2014 tour, after fracturing his elbow when the Giro d’Italia touched down in Ireland, he felt an emptiness.
‘It is love/hate. In 2012, it was such a shock. The intensity of it and the level of concentration needed. The scrutiny, too, is a shock to the system because it follows you around. Every moment of every day. I hated every second of that in 2012,’ he recalls.
‘The following year, I was prepared for the intensity and scrutiny and the focus that it takes and that is when I fell in love with it. Then in 2014, I had to stay at home because of my elbow break at the Giro and all I wanted to do was be on the Tour. I watched it on television at home, frustrated that I wasn’t there.’
It’s not another bike race, as much as Martin will try to convince himself of that. It is the race that made his uncle Stephen Roche a national icon and it is the race that has allowed Martin to establish himself as one of the top cyclists in the globe.
Few other sporting pursuits test the determination and resolve of an athlete as much. When the Tour asked those questions of Martin last year, it found that he had both attributes in spades. 12 months ago, he was going well in the early stages when disaster struck on the ninth stage. Descending the Mont du Chat, Richie Porte took a tumble into Martin’s bike at around 80 km/p/h. The crash ended Porte’s tour but the Irishman remounted. Somehow. He was conscious that Jess, his wife, was watching. He always told her that if he took a bad fall, she would know that he wasn’t hurt if he got back up. The thing was, he wasn’t okay. He finished the stage and, remarkably, the tour in sixth place — with two cracked vertebrae in his back. ‘You are so high on adrenaline that all you think about is getting back on the bike. My main memory of that incident is getting angry with the guy with my new wheel because it was costing me time. It didn’t even set in how fortunate I was to be standing.
‘I always say to Jess if I am standing, you know I am not hurt. So, I wanted to get on my feet as quickly as possible. I could feel my back straight away, but I just thought I was winded. It felt like someone had given me a dig in the ribs.
‘I was going to the physio every day. When you fracture something, the muscles around it go into spasm. The physio was releasing the muscles so I felt fine every day. There was never any pain. It was only about two days after we got to Paris, when the massages had stopped, when I realised something was very wrong. I could barely stand up.’
Given that he finished comfortably in the top ten while hampered by a back problem suggests that, if he stays upright, Martin has the potential to have a major say this year. Even though he has the full backing of his UAE racing team, he can still be got at generous odds of 40-1 to win the race.
Claiming the yellow jersey is probably beyond him, especially as the route this year seems tailor-made for the controversial figure of Chris Froome — Martin has said that he has been asked by his team not to comment on the Froome situation. But he does view a podium finish as a realistic target — and he is keen to win another stage.
‘I think a podium place would be a big box ticked in my career but I’m not setting it as a goal,’ he says.
‘My goal is to get to Paris without any hindrance, without a crash, without any mishap. It will be the most difficult Tour de France ever to do that, especially with the cobbled stages. You could get a flat tyre at the wrong moment and lose 10 minutes.
‘Obviously, mechanical problems can happen at any point. It is going to be a very tough Tour but all I can do is get to the race in the best condition possible, both mentally and physically.’
Martin’s form with his new team had been indifferent in the early part of the season. But he showed some promising signs in the recent Criterium du Dauphine, winning a stage and finishing just outside the podium place. Back in April, he decided to press the reset button.
Personal circumstances helped him take a step back. He and Jess, a former British Olympian at 10,000m, are expecting twin girls in October. The news sharpened Martin’s sense of perspective, so when he was at
‘I REALISED THE RESULT DOESN’T MATTER. IF I WIN, I WIN’
‘CYCLING HAS LET ME LEAD THIS INCREDIBLE LIFESTYLE. I AM FORTUNATE’
home in Andorra in April, he reassessed his goals. And what he wanted out of his sport.
‘In the early part of the season, I really wanted to win a race for my new team. I felt under pressure. And the longer it went on that I wasn’t doing that, the more pressure I was putting on myself.’ Martin explains.
‘So, I just pressed the reset button. I went home and just switched off. I trained away in Andorra for a few weeks, and riding around there, I realised why I am doing this. I do it for enjoyment. Going into races worrying about the result was taking that enjoyment away.
‘Sitting at home, riding around Andorra made me realise how much I loved to ride a bike. I realised the result doesn’t matter. If I win, I win. It is forgotten about the next day because there is another stage. It is the competition that I enjoy, the challenge of trying to beat someone on a bike.’
And despite all the bad press that cycling continues to attract, Martin insists that he still has faith in his sport.
‘Cycling has given me everything. It has let me lead this incredible lifestyle. I met Jess through it. I am fortunate to do as a job what’s a hobby for most people.
‘And I’m able to make a lot of people happy by doing what is essentially a selfish act, winning a race. I know you hear a lot of former professionals say they don’t enjoy it or can’t get back on a bike. That won’t be me. The moment I am not enjoying this any longer, you won’t see me. I will retire.’
It doesn’t sound like he is going to lose his sense of enjoyment any time soon. And he reckons that he is in the right mental place to do something special in this year’s Tour.
‘Psychologically, this is going to be the most testing Tour de France for a long, long time. There is no offday. There is never really an off-day on the Tour, but some days, you can relax more than others. Last year, the two days after my crash were the easiest days so that allowed me to recover enough to finish the race.
‘This year, there are no days to relax. Every day is going to be a challenge. You could see a rollercoaster of a race, where guys will be losing time one day and gaining it the next. Everyone has a bad day on the tour, the trick is to make sure your bad day is better than everyone else’s.’
Spoken like someone who is embracing the challenge of entering the gold-fish bowl that is life on the Tour for the next three weeks. And is determined to enjoy it.