Martin: Gut wrenching to have illness spoil finale

Dan Martin has revealed how “gut-wrenching” it was to have gotten sick in the final week of the Tour, which deprived the Irish rider the possibility of a high placing overall, another stage win, or even both.

The Garmin-SHARP rider fell ill last Tuesday night following the 15th stage of the race from Vaison-la-Romaine to Gap and since then, slipped from 10th overall to 33rd, and last night ended the race one hour 13 minutes down on winner Chris Froome.

“It was just about survival since Tuesday,” said Martin last night. “It was just gut-wrenching for me because I knew I picked up something and couldn’t be 100%. Especially when I knew so many Irish supporters travelled over for the final week of the race.