Dan Martin takes 10th in Giro d’Italia

Dan Martin

Ireland’s Dan Martin claimed his best General Classification result at the Giro d’ Italia on Sunday with a superb 10th overall, a stage win and fourth in the fight for the King of the Mountains jersey.

The 34-year old set out with the ambition of targeting a stage win and he achieved that in some style on last Wednesday’s mountainous run to the summit finish at Sega Di Ale.

Following a 57th overall in his maiden Giro way back in 2010, Martin’s only other engagement with the three-week race finished on the opening night in Belfast in 2014 when he crashed out with a broken collarbone after just 15 kilometres.

This time around his GC threat ended on stage 11 when he lost over nine minutes on the run from Perugia to Montalcino: a deficit exactly half of what he would eventually finish behind race winner Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers).

Thereafter, Martin was an ever-present fixture on the hillier days and was allowed some leeway by those higher up the standings.

It was that exact sequence of events which allowed him to escape in the breakaway on stage 17 and later go on to take a memorable solo win - his first at the Giro and fifth Grand Tour stage win of his career.

In completing the trio, he joined Sam Bennett and Seamus Elliott as the only two other Irish riders to have won stages of the Giro, the Tour de France and the Vuelta A Espana.

Not even Sean Kelly or Stephen Roche completed the feat, though they each won multiple stages of two tours.

“It was a really good Giro for me and the team,” said Martin from Milan.

“We set out to win a stage and we got that. With some more luck we could have had at least two more with our sprinter Cimo (Davide Cimolai).

“For me, I think I showed what I can do again and I’m really looking forward to doing the Tour in a few weeks now after some rest,” he added.

Elsewhere, Nicolas Roche completed his 22nd Grand Tour with 59th overall. Like Martin the Giro is the Grand Tour he has the least experience of but he brought his tally here to five with an assured three weeks of service for Team DSM.

Bernal was a deserving winner, claiming two superb stage wins while having the backing of arguably the best team in the race. Damiano Caruso pushed him all the way and the Bahrain Victorious rider was only 1:29 down on the Colombian after winning Saturday’s penultimate stage and recording an excellent final run against the clock on Sunday night’s concluding time-trial. Rounding out the podium a further 2:46 down was British rider Simon Yates (Team Bike Exchange). Martin was 18:35 down overall.