Daniel Martin is not a man for might-have-beens, so let us fill in the gaps. The Birmingham-born Irishman is set to ride into Paris in sixth place overall, the best Irish finish since his uncle Stephen Roche won the race 30 years ago. But were he a might-have-been man, Martin would have every right to look back at two days in particular in the past three weeks and wonder just a little.
On stage nine into Chambéry he fell over Richie Porte as the Australian rolled down the road on the descent from the final climb and lost 1min 19sec. At the finish in Romans-sur-Isère he was left isolated in the finale, when the crosswinds blew, and lost 51sec. The total loss on those two days was 2min 10sec, through no fault of his own. Going into Saturday’s time trial in Marseille, Martin was 2min 56sec behind Chris Froome, implying that with a little better luck he might have got close to the podium.
Irrespective of whether he finished on the podium or in the top 10, Martin had given a lesson to the other contenders with his opportunism and aggression, his constant hunt for seconds, which extended to attacking – probably at some cost – on the Galibier and Izoard where others hung on to what they had.
His aggression was seen to best effect at Foix and Le-Puy-en-Velay, where he made two late attacks, gaining time in both cases. After the stage to the Izoard he was not the only one wondering openly why the riders immediately behind Froome had not attacked the Sky leader.
The 31-year-old Irishman makes no bones about having an unstructured, somewhat impromptu approach to stage racing. “It’s all on circumstance, although I’m a lot more calculating this year. Last year I attacked quite recklessly sometimes. I’m using attacks with more purpose this time,” he said.
“You need to have an idea of what’s going to happen but, if you have a plan in your head before the start, then you possibly miss opportunities that arise. At PEV I wanted to try something in the finale. It’s down hill to the finish. Why not?” His estimate was that he needed a margin of 1min 30sec on Froome to stand a chance of winning the Tour, so “I might as well try”.
His constant search this year for little snippets of time has its roots back in 2016, when he finished ninth in a breakthrough performance at the Tour for a rider previously considered something of a one-day specialist. “I learned a very hard lesson there,” Martin said. “I was seven seconds off seventh. The difference between seventh and ninth was seven seconds. That’s why I’m looking for every opportunity this year.”
The margin between seventh and 10th was only 13sec, and in seventh and eighth not a single second separated Joaquin Rodríguez and Louis Meintjes.
Fortunately Martin did eventually recover from the crash at Chambéry on stage nine, which left him unable to bend his back, as disturbing footage posted online showed. “In the crash I hit so hard against the bank that all the muscles went into spasm. On the bike there was no pain, none sleeping or standing up. It was just when I had to bend my back the muscles hurt.
“You don’t need to straighten your back on the bike. No problem. [But] I wasn’t able to get out of the saddle. I could sprint but I couldn’t climb out of the saddle because of the hip angle. That was the biggest challenge.”
This, he says, has been a more aggressive Tour de France than usual, for several reasons. One is higher levels of fatigue among the riders. “Everyone is on the limit. They’ve been pushed hard by the organisers. The flat stages look easy but they are long and it’s still kilometres in the legs. There have been a lot of transfers. It’s been brutal. Plus, there are steeper climbs which don’t favour teams. That’s made it more open.”
In addition Team Sky are no longer quite the unit they used to be – “the aura of invincibility has definitely lessened in this race. You are seeing whole teams like AG2R attack” – and a generation of more aggressive riders has emerged. At 31 Martin is not exactly one of this new generation, more of a precursor.
He hails “a different character of rider. Simon Yates is a young rider who’s grown up with aggressive racing, Fabio Aru as well. Look at Romain [Bardet], he’s in the same situation that I’m in. I’ve been top 10 in the Tour de France; if I’m top 10 again, it doesn’t change anything in my life. Romain has been on the podium. Now he wants to win the Tour de France – so why not try?”
