Martin tipped to reach the very top

CYCLING NEWS:IRISH RIDER Daniel Martin has impressed with several strong performances in his two years as a professional, and his team manager yesterday said that he expects him to become one of the top riders in professional cycling.

“With Dan we still have got to wait and see where his talent goes,” Jonathan Vaughters said. “Is he a general classification rider for three-week Tours, is he a (future) winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, is he more of a one-week Dauphiné Libéré rider? It is still a bit undetermined at the moment . . . he has only done one three-week Tour so far. But do I think that he is going to be one of the biggest names in the sport in two or three years? Absolutely.”

Martin turned professional with the Garmin team at the start of 2008 and won the Route du Sud several months later. He took other strong placings, then this year finished second overall in the Volta a Catalunya, third in the Tour of the Mediterranean and was eighth in the season-ending Tour of Lombardy. The latter race followed on from the Tour of Spain, where he finished 53rd overall.

“Obviously his first three-week Tour, the Vuelta, was a bit of a hard experience for him,” said Vaughters. “But he bounced right back from it and was one of the strongest riders at the Tour of Lombardy.”

After the Vuelta, Martin conceded that he might have been slightly overtrained. The 23-year-old coped well, but never quite climbed as he would have expected. He’ll hope to get things right for next year’s Tour although, as Vaughters says, it might take him another season or two before he is old enough and developed enough to hold his form for three weeks.

“In theory, the course of the 2010 Tour de France is perfect for Dan,” he said. “That said, he is unpredictable . . . I could see him finishing in the top 10 of the Tour, or I could see him as just a very valuable ally for (team leader) Christian Van de Velde in the mountains.

“We don’t know – Dan is very young. Even for his age, he is physiologically very young . . . he is a late bloomer, if you will.”

Meanwhile, UCI president Pat McQuaid was this week nominated for election to the IOC. The election will take place in February 2010.

FIXTURES

Sunday:Killorglin hamper race, starts 10.0am.