Dan is the man

MPFGLB

Dan Martin would do well to concentrate on the classics and stage hunting at the Tour ...I dont see him making a Tour podium tbh .He nearly always gets sick or falls and his TT and the team TTT will let him down

What you win in racing has alot to do with the competition

Roglic, Dumoulin , Froome Thomas, Porte all far better at TT and good climbers
Kruijswijk, Uran, Pinot a step below but still v good
Also all the new super talented kids on the block such as Mas, Bernal,Sosa , Pogacar , Evenepol all well able to TT

And strongest of all imo the Yates twins

But yes Dan can win LBL or Lombardia and stages of the Tour

neris

4km to go in UAE tour and Dan is up there on the stage

He's with Valverde now hopefully he can get back on., but they are 10 seconds down on the leaders.

neris

Ffs

jimbobaloobob

What happened

CrowdedHouse

jimbobaloobob wrote: »

What happened

Valverde comes up from waaaaay back, Dan is gapped a bit from his leading group of 4, Valverde sits on Dan for a minute then makes another burst , catches the others and wins the sprint for the stage - horse of a man...:rolleyes:

Dan looked a hell of a lot better than many of the others who went backwards, Nibali and Porte in particular.

brocbrocach

Deleted User wrote: »

Dan looked a hell of a lot better than many of the others who went backwards, Nibali and Porte in particular.

So he should as he's been talking a lot about how this race is one of his season's goals (because it's UAE's home race). I wouldn't think Nibali or Porte give a damn if they end up last. I'm surprised VV is so sharp. Also seriously impressed by Buchmann - I think he'll have a big year this year.

neris

Good result today in the Basque country 2nd on the stage & took 2nd overall

Torres09

neris wrote: »

Good result today in the Basque country 2nd on the stage & took 2nd overall

When you follow the motorbike and not the course:eek:

I was was gutted for Buchmann but looking now they have him in 3rd over all in GC so they must have bumped him up in the standings.

CrowdedHouse

Bora tweeted that he was 2nd, and PCS also show him 2nd


EDIT A further tweet has him 3rd now

brocbrocach

Oh no Dan...
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dan-martin-joins-israel-cycling-academy-on-two-year-deal/

MPFGLB

From UAE to Israel ...cant say he has any political alignment !!!

I presume Israel Cycling are going for WT licence as otherwise not a great move

But Dan has few options now given he has never ridden as a domestique ....always been a rookie or a leader


Bet he got a good pay packet after 2 million at UAE

Last I heard ICA hadn't been successful in getting WT status along with Vital Concept and Arkéa-Samsic and that Total and Cofidis were the ones moving up. Not sure if that was 100% confirmed or not though and was back in May/June.

The other rumour was Arkéa-Samsic merging with Katusha to get in that way.

MPFGLB

Deleted User wrote: »

Last I heard ICA hadn't been successful in getting WT status along with Vital Concept and Arkéa-Samsic and that Total and Cofidis were the ones moving up. Not sure if that was 100% confirmed or not though and was back in May/June.

The other rumour was Arkéa-Samsic merging with Katusha to get in that way.

Well if that is true that is another UCI rubbish move

ICA and Arkéa-Samsic are far better than Cofidis and Total

On what I wonder is the decision made ??

If ICA do not step up can only think its a final pay packet for Dan Martin before he retires as he is no domestique

brocbrocach

Well racing from Pro-Conti might work out as long as ICA get a GC invite either to the Tour or Giro. ICA aren't afraid to flash the cash so after investing in Dan they'd be mad not to throw money at getting an invite. Dan only does one a year anyway. The team is recruiting strongly so they should have a good set of domestiques around to get him to the final stages in the Ardennes and to the mountains in the GT.
Whether he'll get to all the spring races and the likes of Catalunya, Lombardia, Dauphiné, Romandie, Swiss, is another question.

I think the changes for the invites for GT's come into effect this year with the top 2 PC teams getting them.

MPFGLB

brocbrocach wrote: »

Well racing from Pro-Conti might work out as long as ICA get a GC invite either to the Tour or Giro. ICA aren't afraid to flash the cash so after investing in Dan they'd be mad not to throw money at getting an invite. Dan only does one a year anyway. The team is recruiting strongly so they should have a good set of domestiques around to get him to the final stages in the Ardennes and to the mountains in the GT.
Whether he'll get to all the spring races and the likes of Catalunya, Lombardia, Dauphiné, Romandie, Swiss, is another question.

Yes but none of those races are guaranteed at Pro conti level
His move has big pay packet written all over it
Which is fine but not the move of a rider hoping to ensure results
BTW his deal with ICA is a 2 year deal

Yeah looks like he is thinking of his and families future more than getting results.

Macy0161

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeah looks like he is thinking of his and families future more than getting results.

So being a professional then...

Disappointing move - thought he might go to Total tbh. UAE are building the sprint train, never mind the clusterf*ck of whatever happened at the Tour.

brocbrocach

Between Dan's name and ICA's money and growing status I can't see him missing much, hope I'm not wrong.
I'd like to see him try the Giro or Vuelta providing his allergies let him of course.

godtabh

Very surprised by this. Wonder what that means for Conor Dunne? He had a solid Giro.

Macy0161

Macy0161 wrote: »

So being a professional then...

Disappointing move - thought he might go to Total tbh. UAE are building the sprint train, never mind the clusterf*ck of whatever happened at the Tour.

He is a professional.

Agree from where he stands now it's a disappointing move as big results look less likely and it would be nice to see him add a few over the last few years of his career.

Macy0161

Gotta laugh at some of the facebook outrage of him signing for ICA - he's moving from a UAE sponsored team ffs, human rights obviously not high on his list of concerns!

ednwireland

seems weird moving to pro continental

Eamonnator

ednwireland wrote: »

seems weird moving to pro continental

Looking at his pension fund.
Fair play to him.

CramCycle

Eamonnator wrote: »

Looking at his pension fund.
Fair play to him.

That's what I thought, politics aside, he has a family and this provides security for them for life unless he is foolish which I doubt. This year at UAE has not gone as well as expected. With a pro conti team he could do very well at some of the lower down races, Build a good name, some bonuses, as a move, it's clearly a move that states family first but I still want to show I am a good rider. I think it was a good call.

ednwireland

Eamonnator wrote: »

ednwireland wrote: »

seems weird moving to pro continental

Looking at his pension fund.
Fair play to him.

not like he was on peanuts at UAE was it ?

CramCycle

ednwireland wrote: »

not like he was on peanuts at UAE was it ?

They weren't going to keep that up though. Between that and how the year went , it was a calculated Move 8n regards timing IMO