Daniel Martin

Dura Ace

Is anybody else getting bored with the British cycling press (esp. Cycling Weekly) banging on about Daniel Martin declaring for Ireland? Sometimes the British seem to ignore the fact that some of their best cyclists don't have the most direct links with their country. David Millar (born in Malta), Max Sciandri (considered himself Italian but couldn't get on their team before declaring for Britain), Charly Wegelius (born in Finland) Chris Froome (born in Kenya, brought up in South Africa), Bradley Wiggins (born in Belgium) etc., etc.
Hopefully, he has a great performance in the U23 Worlds on Friday.

smithslist

Dura Ace wrote: »

David Millar (born in Malta), Max Sciandri (considered himself Italian but couldn't get on their team before declaring for Britain), Charly Wegelius (born in Finland) Chris Froome (born in Kenya, brought up in South Africa), Bradley Wiggins (born in Belgium) etc., etc.
Hopefully, he has a great performance in the U23 Worlds on Friday.

interesting...something i never knew bout British riders

I rant about Martin in a previous post....so not gona rant bout it again!!!!

Harrybelafonte

Usual British media take on things. Watch the tennis player, Murray I think. He's Scottish when he loses

Tackleberry

Dura Ace wrote: »

Is anybody else getting bored with the British cycling press (esp. Cycling Weekly) banging on about Daniel Martin declaring for Ireland? Sometimes the British seem to ignore the fact that some of their best cyclists don't have the most direct links with their country. David Millar (born in Malta), Max Sciandri (considered himself Italian but couldn't get on their team before declaring for Britain), Charly Wegelius (born in Finland) Chris Froome (born in Kenya, brought up in South Africa), Bradley Wiggins (born in Belgium) etc., etc.
Hopefully, he has a great performance in the U23 Worlds on Friday.

Yeah standard stuff really, after years of having the England B Team playing for us in football I guess they're still thinking along the same lines in cycling, however I'm taking their rants as a seriously good sign of what they think he is capable of in the future, and what they feel they'll be missing out on.

I've always been sceptical of the whole "my grandmother's neighbour's cat was Oirish" but in Dan's case his mother is Irish, and if I was in his position, with Roche Snr as an uncle and Roche jnr as a cousin, choosing a nationality would be a no-brainer, to add insult to injury, British Cycling pretty much told him to fcuk off a couple of years back coz they were only focused on track - welcome to Ireland Danny Boy!!

Its just brilliant at the mo, we've Roche looking like a serious grand tour / classics contender, Martin coming up very close behind him with masses of ability, and Deignan getting into a team with the reigning tour champion, an established pro continental team and a fully professional national tour - dream stuff after the ****e and misery of the 90's.

Dodge

On the garmin website they talk about their "Irish" future star all the time. Almost as if to piss off some of the British press.

dave2pvd

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

Usual British media take on things. Watch the tennis player, Murray I think. He's Scottish when he loses

The 'John Watson phenomenon'.

Murray Walker used to call him Irish when he was losing, British when he was winning.