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Last Updated: Sep 26th, 2008 - 19:28:34 |
Despite being one of the strongest riders in the race, Daniel Martin was ultimately disappointed with the outcome of the under 23 world road race championship in Varese, Italy, today.
The Irishman attacked a chasing group with just over one 17.33 kilometre lap remaining, attempting to solo across a gap of over a minute to seven leaders. He got to within 30-odd seconds before being caught and passed by another group, eventually fading to 58th.
The 22 year old crossed the line 39 seconds after Colombian rider Fabio Andres Duarte Arevalo, who had jumped clear inside the final kilometre to take the win. Simone Ponzi (Italy) and John Degenkolb (Germany) netted silver and bronze.
Martin was in impressive form, but missed an important break of five riders. This quintet was over a minute clear of his own chasing group with three laps to go, and were then joined by two others.
The Garmin Chipotle pro tried repeatedly to get his group to work better together, verbally reasoning with the other riders and also driving the pace on the climbs, but ultimately became frustrated with the lack of co-operation.
He then gambled on getting across alone, surging clear of the others on the long climb before the start of the final lap.
Martin faced a very tough task but showed his strength when he succeeded in halving his deficit. However he was caught and passed by a group of fresher riders, with these chasers then adding a lot of speed to the front group once they bridged to the leaders. In retrospect, had Martin gambled and waited, he may well have been sprinting it out for a medal. He can nevertheless be proud of a very defiant and determined showing.
Fellow Irishman Ronan McLaughlin was 90th, finishing nine minutes 18 seconds behind the winner Duarte Arevelo. Conor McConvey withdrew during the event. Both helped Martin early on and gained vital experience.
Next up for the Irish squad is tomorrow’s Elite women’s road race. National champion Siobhan Dervan, Louise Moriarty, Heather Wilson and Olivia Dillion will compete in the 138.8 kilometre event.
Daniel Martin's reaction:
When I attacked to chase the leaders, I tried to get the Belgian guy to come with me but he said it was too early. I had to go for it alone. I thought there was a risk of it not coming back and so felt I had to try to get across to them myself.
I got the gap down to 15 seconds or so, but didn’t quite make it across. It was hard to know what was going on - we didn’t have one time check all day so had no idea what was happening. Radios are banned in under 23 races this year and so we didn’t know how far ahead the leaders were.
I was surprised with how it worked out – if you look at almost all the world championships in recent memory, they have been decided on the final lap. That shows the effect of the radios. So it was surprising that group was out there for so long.
Once I was clear, I was surprised those chasing riders did come back up to me – nine times out of ten they wouldn’t have ridden in a situation like that. The group really wasn’t going anywhere beforehand. Once they caught me that was it – they came past me very quickly. The Belgians were riding for their leader, he asked them to work but then finally didn’t have the legs. They must have been frustrated with that.
To be honest, I think I rode a perfect race. It’s a shame it didn’t work out, but it might have on another day. Anyway, I put on a good show. Everyone seems to have enjoyed it, both all the Irish at the race and those back home who watched it on TV. That is the most important thing! I guess it puts Irish cycling back on the map, to an extent – everyone in Italy knows that Irish cycling is coming back.
I want to stress what a great job the two other riders did for me today, Ronan McLaughlin and Conor McConvey. Both were great, worked a lot. I think that Ronan did an awesome job – he helped me all day, yet finished the race as well. It’s probably his first ride at this sort of level. In fact, the race was almost as hard as the pro races I have done this year.
I’ve have a long season. This time last week, I would have been happy just to finish the race, I felt that bad. I’m doing the Tour of Lombardy and then that will be it – time for a break!
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World Championships, Varese, Italy, September 23-28:
Race 4 - September 26: Under 23 men's road race - 10 laps:
1, Fabio Andres Duarte Arevalo (Colombia) 173.35 kilometres in 4 hours 17 mins 2 secs (40.500 km/h)
2, Simone Ponzi (Italy)
3, John Degenkolb (Germany)
4, Ben Swift (Great Britain)
5, Rui Costa (Portugal)
6, Cyril Gautier (France)
7, Egor Silin (Russian Federation)
8, Daniel Oss (Italy) 0.05
9, Dennis Van Winden (Netherlands) 0.07
10, Damiano Caruso (Italy) 0.12
Other:
58, Dan Martin (Ireland) at 39 secs
90, Ronan McLaughlin (Ireland) at 9 mins 18 secs
DNF: Connor McConvey (Ireland)
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