After 14 professional seasons, Dan Martin said goodbye to the peloton in September 2021 on the occasion of the Tour of Lombardy in Italy, a classic he won in 2014. At 35, the friendly Irishman had decided to put his bike. Today he recounts his years as a professional runner in a book entitled: In pursuit of the panda.
Not to be “ disgusted forever of the little queen, Dan Martin decided that the time of competition was over. Today, the little nephew of Stephen Roche get on his bike at least” twice a week “for a ride” between friends “. ” I promised myself to stop when it was no longer fun “.
Eternal Attacker
This life as a cyclist, so special, has been his joy and his sorrows. This sometimes too sanitized cycling peloton, where the individual is almost considered a robot, no longer gave him the ” immense pleasure ” of ” feel the sun on his skin and the wind caressing his face on his training routes. And the adrenaline of the competition has knocked against the test of time. Too many constraints for the one who will have succeeded in winning stages on the three Grand Tours (France, Italy and Spain) and displayed, among other things, two “Monuments” on his record with Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2013 and the Tour of Lombardy in Next year. Cycling is about failing often and sometimes finding the way to success.
The eternal attacker, brilliant, combative, who loved to appear when you weren’t expecting him, – pedaling is not enough -, considered that he no longer had his place in an environment where you have to follow the instructions to the letter and silence your instincts in race. “ There is a lot of pressure from teams and sponsors, we must not talk about fear, we must not show our weaknesses in this sport where we feel alone most of the time. », admits today Dan Martin, not very reckless in the descents. ” I didn’t like fallingso I wasn’t pushing my limits he laughs in his black sweater, his body still slender. Also, he no longer wanted to be away from his wife and children.
Modern cycling now places incredible restrictions on weight. Denied him at the end of his career that someone, ” even a doctor “, look for ” take control of his body. ” This job, you had to live it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week “, specifies Dan Martin who had nevertheless launched the challenge ” a priori too big and insane to win the Tour de France at the age of 32 with the UAE Emirates team. The man is a competitor. What has always driven him: winning.
No longer play the leading roles
Three years later, reality catches up with him. ” All these young people who arrived, focused only on the bike, we had to be realistic, I could no longer play the leading roles “, he points out with humility. However, in 2021, the cousin of Nicholas Roche finished the Giro in 10th position in the general classification with a stage victory, the last bouquet of his career.
” I liked to reflect, to think things tactically, to use my brain. Now you get on your bike and we tell you when you have to attack, when you have to drink. I had lost that feeling of being in control, which I loved “says Dan Martin. The ” military side was not his thing. Spending several months of the year training alone in the mountains was no longer an option for this runner at ease in long passes.
In just over three hundred pages, Dan Martin recounts a life as a cyclist that does not often allow you to get off the beaten track and taste the fantasy. ” I’m still young, I want to discover other things “says the British-Irish who represented Ireland in competition. Dan Martin returns with frankness and humor to a chapter of a life that we wish him to be as full as possible. He who had trouble venting as a runner.
Dan Martin In pursuit of the panda – Autobiography of a romantic cyclist Hugo Sports