Riding straight to the top

HOME AND AWAY/DANIEL MARTIN, IRISH ROAD RACE CHAMPION:He's still only 22, but all indications are that Daniel Martin is the real deal in the cycling world. Last June, as a first-year pro, he won the mountainous Route du Sud, stunning his Garmin Chipotle team with a calm, confident ride in the high peaks.

This season he’s been even quicker to make his mark; last Sunday he finished third in the Tour of the Mediterranean, ending the prestigious event just 52 seconds behind winner Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne). He also dominated the best young rider award.

Martin has cycling in his genes. His father, Neil, is a former British professional, while his mother, Maria, is the sister of Stephen Roche, winner of the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and World Road Race championships 22 years ago. That makes him a first cousin to Stephen’s son Nicolas, and together the pair are shaping up to be strong riders for the future.

As a younger rider Martin competed with a British licence and won their national junior title in 2004, but didn’t fit in to the requirements of the scene there. The emphasis of British Cycling (BC) was on track riding at the time. The Birmingham-born rider was a lightweight climber and had far more interest in road races and high mountains than hurtling around a velodrome doing the individual pursuit or the points race.

“I felt like I got no support from them,” he told The Irish Times around the time. “At one point I had to actually call them to find out that I was going to the world championships; it was getting close to the race but nobody had bothered to tell me if I was selected or not.”

Cycling Ireland didn’t have anything like the same resources but had something BC did not: a keen interest in the young rider. He promptly switched passports and racing licences, and became Irish.

Martin downplays this a little now; his parents still live in Britain. Last June, British Cycling tried to coax him back after he won the Route du Sud, but he made it clear he wasn’t available.

Capturing the Irish road race title one week later underlined his allegiance, and he’s been proudly wearing the distinctive national champion’s jersey since.

“I have always loved racing in Ireland, and I would like to thank everybody for making me feel welcome, because obviously I am not 100 per cent Irish. I was a bit afraid about the reaction I would get, but everybody has been awesome,” he said. “Maybe someday I will learn the accent too.”

Being a pro cyclist, home for him is in neither country. Mainland Europe is the hub of the sport and he’s currently based in Girona, Spain, along with most of the Garmin Slipstream team. He spent previous years living near Marseille, so is well used to coping with other languages and cultures by now – a good thing for a competitor in such a nomadic sport.

Team-mate David Millar is impressed by his unwavering focus. “His first year was phenomenal. Phenomenal,” the Tour de France stage winner told The Irish Times. “When he came into the team he was all cocky and confident . . . we were asking ourselves, ‘who is this kid?’ But he has come through with the goods.

“He is a born racer. He is so unassuming physically, but on a bike he is like, wow. It is rare to have a guy who climbs that well as a neo-pro. They are rare creatures.”

Team manger Jonathan Vaughters goes even further. “I really see him, five years from now, as very potentially the guy we groom into a Giro or Tour de France winner. I don’t see any better prospect on our team other than him,” he stated.

For his part, Martin has a quiet confidence in his abilities, but also stresses that it is too soon to predict how things will go.

“I think that everybody has to calm down a bit and just see what happens,” he said during the off-season. “I will keep training hard and hopefully my body will progress more.”

That said, his Tour of the Mediterranean performance shows that 2008 was no fluke. His training has gone well all winter – “I only missed one day and that was because of bad weather,” he said – and he should continue to build form in the months ahead, gathering up more results and plaudits.

Next up is the five-day Tour of Murcia, starting March 4th, and then the Vuelta Castilla y Leon. A good showing in those and subsequent races would increase the chances of him riding his first Tour de France. Being selected by his team is one of his stated targets for the season, and something he is focused on.

If Martin ultimately gets the nod for the July event, he’ll still be a month shy of his 23rd birthday. He’d be too young to go for the overall classification and so would be likely to ride the race in support of team leader Christian Vande Velde, who was fourth overall in 2008.

That’s all part of a long-term plan, though; a strong talent plus a steady development should equal an extremely bright future in the sport.

And doing it with a team where riding clean is the biggest priority? That’s every bit as encouraging as the promise he has shown.

Daniel Martin

Date of birth: August 20th, 1986.

Team: Garmin – Slipstream.

Resides: Girona, Spain.

Main pro results: 2008 (first season): won Route du Sud, Irish road race champion, fourth in Tour of Britain, fifth stage three Tour of Denmark, sixth in Route Adélie, eighth in the GP Internacional CTT Correios de Portugal, 10th Volta a Portugal and second young rider classification.

2009: Third in Tour of the Mediterranean, best young rider.