Dan Martin keen to regain momentum after taking break

Having passed up on his usual Vuelta a España participation following his twin goals of the Tour de France and Olympic road race, Dan Martin's alternative approach to the end of season brings him to the Tour of Britain.

The race begins in Glasgow on Sunday and Martin will start with high ambition, believing a win is possible.

“Doing the Tour de France and the Olympic Games was very tiring, physically and mentally,” the Etixx-QuickStep rider said. “After the road race, I stayed in Rio to recover and follow my girlfriend, who was competing at the Olympics.

“It was nice. I cleared my mind and once I returned home I started building up for the last part of the season. Even though I don’t know what to expect from this race, I am keen on honouring it with a win, especially as in the past I came close to a victory, but missed out on one.

“The team is strong, so let’s see what we’re going to do.”

Martin will initially aim for a stage victory but if that works out, the nature of the race could mean that he will be close to the top of the general classification. One complication is the 15km individual time trial in Bristol, which will favour bigger riders.

Martin finished a career-best ninth overall in the Tour de France. Although he and the other general classification contenders from that race were still fatigued in Rio, he finished a solid 13th there.

Irish competitors

Ronan McLaughlin is best of the Irish competitors in the Tour de Hokkaido after two stages. Racing with a Spin 11 squad in the Japanese event, he was 18th fastest in yesterday morning’s 1km prologue in Sapporo.

Daire Feeley was best of the Irish in the afternoon stage. He finished 31st, rolling in as part or the main bunch six minutes and 41 seconds behind the Japanese solo winner Nariyuki Masuda. McLaughlin will start Friday's stage in 25th overall.

Jens Keukeleire won stage 12 of the Vuelta a España as Nairo Quintana retained the leaders’ red jersey ahead of Chris Froome.

The 193.2km stage from Los Corrales de Buelna to Bilbao ended in a much-reduced sprint finish, and Keukeleire took victory ahead of Etixx-QuickStep’s Maxime Bouet and Trek-Segafredo’s Fabio Felline for his first Grand Tour stage win.