Dan Martin FINALLY Speaks Out: What Really Happened At Liege

Dan Martin is one of the top world class pro cyclists of the last decade. Winner of stages in the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España and many one day classics races such as Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Dan also opens up about the low points and that famous crash that happened just meters from claiming his 2nd Liège-Bastogne-Liège win.

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today I sit down with legendary our cyclist Mr Dan Martin born into a family steeped in cycling history a f who was a professional cyclist and a mother who was Steven roach’s sister Dan’s Pat seemed destined for the world of professional cycling today we’ll explore whether cycling was always his Destiny or whether there were Alternatives we relive Dan’s biggest winds Li Grand Tour stages lumbardy and the low points including 10 years on from that crash just meters from claiming his second Le win you’re going to love this conversation to support today’s podcast please check out our sponsors in the description below and now it’s Mr Don [Music] Martin Don Martin welcome to the Roan podcast B time drink yeah great to be here yeah H Dan your family you’re entrenched in cyclin like I’ve written with your dad a few times in Jona he’s a former pro your mom Steven roach’s sister were you always G to be a pro cyclist or was there ever an option of a different career that’s that’s a way to started chat it straight in there straight no kissing I mean you think that it it just having the family it definitely just maybe love cycling and I think when you love something you kind of you put everything you’ve got into it and it’s kind of I was obviously I grew up in a household that was like just I was just surrounded by everything bike you know my dad still loved the sport this day like watches every single race more than me like there was cycling magazines everywhere all the over the house it was constantly on TV and I’m watching my dad race as well and it was kind of like yeah I think it was pretty inevitable that I was going to if I was good enough that I was going to be a pro cyclist so it’s um but yeah obviously that’s wanting to be something and end ending or making it a career is something very different obviously so yeah I mean it’s obviously maybe genetics helps and all that as well but I do think the being surrounded by cycling and having having an uncle that won the Tour to France it’s kind of it does give you a certain self-belief that it’s possible it’s realistic to be a pro cyclist and I think it’s it it enbl me to like not so much I I read a lot of times people say oh my dream is to do this whereas I there was never any question in my mind from the age of about 12 that it wasn’t like I’m dreaming of being a pro cyclist is I am going to be a pro cyclist and I think when you’ve got that when you have that attitude and when you have that not even determination just that it’s on unted belief that it’s going to happen then it does encourage you to take certain risks that are going to that make it happen like like if you I often if I if I believe I’m going to win a race you take every risk on the downhill so you’re like well I’m going to win so I’m not going to crash and you just you take every risk possible to like to get to the bottom of that hat downhill first and it’s it’s uh so yeah I definitely obviously been surrounded it I also I’ve always said this as well huge amount of admiration for any cyclist who picks up a bike and and does and rides a bike without having family because I always had this supportive ring around me that my dad’s always been pretty much been through every experience that I’ve been through you know so you’ve always got somebody who understands right there not saying not asking stupid questions like oh why didn’t you win today or why did you fall off you know it’s just like and that also helps obviously it’s always a backup call it’s like it’s a yeah we’ve been there we understand you’ll get through it you know so yeah I mean yeah did did you have an awareness how big Uncle Steven was or was he just Uncle Steven I think there there’s kind of a pseudo created anecdote my book but it’s totally true like that he was sitting opposite me eating his turkey you know he just like he’s just he’s just my uncle you know was never he never really like I think that kind of was always an attitude I had you know I was just a r pro cyclist and it just like it wasn’t it was just like meeting some a factory worker or someone who works in a restaurant you know just yeah that’s just their job they just a cyclist you know it’s just that it’s it wasn’t abnormal to be a pro cyclist or to it wasn’t even have normal to win the Tour of France I just assumed it was just something just something that people do they just going win the Tour to France I guess but everyone won the Tour yeah yeah exactly but honestly I didn’t really have I didn’t see him a lot because obviously he was really Liv in the UK there those couple of years when I spent the Summers with niik and stevenh in when they lived in Dublin but then they moved back to France and then we’ go to Ireland we we kind of crossed us a few times here and there but not not as much as uh not as much to have a big impact on my career and it was actually kind of nice because niiko an amazing career you know stages wela leaders J His Brilliant career by any metric of judging a good career but still an absolute impossibility to step out of the dad Shadow like that shadow was unless he went on to become T Pacha he wasn’t stepping out with Steven shadow where you have that just one degree of separation where you never had the Steven roach Shadow getting cast on your career you’re able to build your own identity basically from day one yeah ex I didn’t have that name attached to me so it’s kind of it was almost like a subplot in my story that oh yeah and by the way he’s this he’s he’s steeve roach’s nephew you know so no I mean he made a lot like obviously there’s also always an incredible amount of pressure on Nico to but I don’t think he ever found that I don’t know if you ever felt it it’s hard to say but obviously yeah it’s uh yeah it’s I think every AR cyclist kind of struggles with that we got these two great of the cycling world not just our recycling like with Sean and Sean G and Steven it’s like every horror is like we’re never going to be it doesn’t matter what we do just say unless you win every race on the planet you’re not going to be able to compete with them yeah it’s so true what was your relationship like with niik was it helpful having a cousin or did you have like you know I have cousins that I don’t even think I get invited to their wedding like I don’t know him at all did you have a good relationship with him oh yeah definitely I mean it’s he got me into Leon Mar which is my shot I basically took his play in my which really kickstarted my my road to being a pro and then always supported always just ran the corner and we when I was in Mars had those three years and he just ran the corner in Monaco well n Monaco and then yeah just just strange you know because he’s always got you’ve got somebody in a we’ never in the same team but somebody in a different Jersey encouraging you during a race encouraging each other always being there for each other and it’s uh yeah I mean I remember quite fundly like there was one lombardia I think I which year it was when I got second and on the jalo with like when it finished in Leo we hit digitalo like 40K to go and ni just came up to me and says you look you look incredible today like I was actually suffering at the time I was actually in a bit of a bad moment he’s like you look really good today you’re gonna you can win this and it was just like it almost took me a back you know and just little things like that that he said to me during my during racing and stuff during the career and just like little messages of support like being there when Nico won this first stage of the of the Welter that year you know uh was it stage one it was I think we had a TT the St before so but yeah he uh yeah just little things like that being there sharing those moments with somebody that family I mean that’s that’s a pretty special thing to have to be a to enjoy everyone always wants to know is it nature is it nurture obviously you had nature with those genetics coming from that family but nothing happens without the hard work as well when you think back to those early years was there a coach or a mentor in your corner who really helped accelerate that progression I mean just my dad I mean I didn’t really have a coach until I I turned Pro in like 2008 2009 was when I first had my first coach so that’s that’s where the sports changed you know I got I literally got to being a professional cyclist even having a trainer and it’s uh and yeah obviously my dad was always in calling to offer advice but then he soon realized as well that once we got to like he didn’t he didn’t have a clue about power training or whatts or anything you know it was just a case of going out and sprinting the road signes and that’s basically how I trained that’s how train to start with you know and it’s just just go get go to this hill ride up it as high as you can and uh that’s basically I’ve gone full circle now that’s how I train there uh but it’s uh but yeah I mean it’s just obviously a massive combination of of different things and yeah as I say self-belief and just things working out well overall you know just like somebody looking out for me definitely a GU an angel or whatever just like kind of I say it takes an enormous amount of not only potential but also lot to be a successful Pro cyst because all you need is a a mechanical when you’re just about to win a big race or a crash when you’re in the top form of your life and you break your collarbone and then he knocks you out and you know it it’s there’s so many things we’re so vulnerable as cist even if you’re the best guy in the world you can you still there still a lot can go wrong to stop you from winning the race yeah no 100% And it’s like it’s invaluable having those people in your corner like if niiko who’s kind of navigating the same space as you and making those mistakes about 12 or 24 months ahead of you so he can kind of say hey look I went down this pattern I tried this diet or I tried this type of training plan here’s the result I got probably wouldn’t do it that way if I had the opportunity again I think I was also quite strong minded as well so I was Lally I did operate on my own paths I wouldn’t listen to Crazy diets or people said oh you need to lose a bit of weight that’s like obviously there’s a lot of especially in frch cycling when I was grow when I was there there was a lot of eating disorders and [ __ ] like that you know and and it’s just like this obsessed with being skinny it’s like it doesn’t matter if you if you’re so tired you can’t go trading you haven’t eaten I haven’t eaten for free days you know it’s like it’s just bizarre it’s I kind of it’s funny enough I actually the whole the whole nutritional tactics that we’re seeing now as far I just eat as much as you can that’s basically what I did my whole career like from the start I figured out that just from trial and error I like wait a minute if I eat lots I can train really really hard and I seem to get skinnier if I try and diet I always put on weight so I was like I’m just going to eat what I want when I want and then it like and that’s that’s basically yeah now the whole sport has kind of gone that way and I I think that is also why I was I just I kind of got an analytical brain that I kind of I’ve worked out how my body worked best kind of on my own and I was like just analyzing stuff all the time thinking okay if I do this this works best for me so if I do and yeah I mean also lucky to get forward into the ging team because I think they were scientifically very very strong we’re ahead of the game as far as you see the team T performances nutritionally very well very good and we were uh that’s why earlier in my career was very I could have as much success as I did because we were massively ahead of the game especially if far nutrition and getting all this carbohydrate in you whatever that we’re seeing there I remember when I was out in France I was out with a dn2 team and we used to call it these like FBI raids the director come to the door unannounced but he wouldn’t be looking for anything nefarious he’s looking for crossons and he’s looking for baguettes cuz we lived above a bakery so he’d be going through all the presses looking for crossons and baguettes and we used to put them into like a plastic bag put them into the washing machine and then pil dirty clothes in on top of them to hide all the crossons from him but it was that like you were constantly in fear of being fat like he’s my first experience on a French team was meeting the director and he literally pinched my stomach and he’s just like okay yeah good good it’s like this this is an eating disorder pack packaged ready to go yeah exactly I mean it’s kind of I remember when I won the time child in valdier and literally one of the the road captains of the race and the team and he’s just got he lived there he wasn’t in the race he just lived there and he’s like oh imagine how much he would have won by if you were skinny and I was like what are you talking about like literally I won like literally it’s just just an obsession it’s like and even to this day you I I won’t name names but one of the teams I was in Lally like I get like I go to the doctor at the first team meeting and I literally sit down and by the way they’ve changed now they’re not in siing anymore so it’s not really that big a deal but they literally it just shows that it’s still predent in other some aspect of cycling this is only like yeah a few years ago uh and they start in the October November training camp they started talking about weight and oh so what you race weight and I just like I stood up them I was like what does it matter and they’re like oh yeah but I’m like and I can’t remember how the conversation went but it got down to me asking the question well so what’s better what in your view doc what is better being skinny like super lean and getting dropped or being five kilos of waste and winning the race and they genuinely couldn’t answer the question they literally like they were stunned like oh uh uh oh uh uh I’m like they’re like it wouldn’t be possible to win if you were I’m like no answer the question and they couldn’t answer it they like because in their eyes it was like you know it was almost like they were saying no no it’s much better to be leading than winning yeah you know at least you look at least you look the part you know and it’s like wow that’s just like it and yeah I mean it’s this whole yeah anyway that’s a whole rabbit hole we know he going but that’s just culture that’s that’s the but just it demonstrates well I was surrounded by guys who were going through eating disorders and I I just managed to somehow just blank it all out and do my own thing and ignore people completely I’m like I’m I’m going to EIT as much pass as I can today because we got a big stage tomorrow but that’s a commonality you see in a lot of athletes like I’ve talked to you know not justas but other athletes who have achieved massive success in their careers and some of them a really interesting one is Olivia she’s a record ever Irish goal scorer on the female team she scored more goals than Robbie in the female team she came from a really difficult background in workingclass Dublin uh almost all of her friends and family were addicted to heroin at an early age really difficult time growing up in Dublin in the 80s but she talked to me about how she had to build this bubble she constructed this purposeful force field around herself where she said I’m gonna be the greatest ever Irish women’s football player no matter what happens and it’s like anything toxic just bounced off this force field that she built for it you see this time and time again you know that’s obviously an extreme example but you’ve done something similar with constructing this force field around toxic attitudes to insulate you to create that success well even as far as like I think definitely as I got older I grew in confidence in kind of and would just do what I felt was best for me and taking control of my own destiny and my own career like that you know for example like making like getting buy going out and actually buying an energy drink that actually worked well for me and that’s what like and make like into this end having to make my own bottles like to before stages because I’m like no this was better than the team drink so I want to drink this or or and I mean the last five years of my career I basically never had a massage because I found it just didn’t do anything for me I felt my legs felt better just through circumstances I had a few stages when I was like we get to the hotel at 8:00 at night 9:00 at night and I’d be like I can’t for massage I was going to go dinner and go to bed and I’d wake up and have amazing legs the next day and be like wait a minute like my legs felt better without massage so why would I so I’m going to try it so I tried it over a few like a few days and like and I was like huh I don’t have massage at home either so why why would I suddenly go to a race and suddenly have some guy P into my legs I didn’t I ended up not having massage and felt a lot better for it and and funly enough as well and I’ve this is only something that I’ve figured out since I stopped I did 19 started 19 grand Tours during my career I I did nine with massage 10 without and of the nine that I did with massage I got sick sick five times maybe even six times of the 10 without massage not a single sickness so coincidence possibly but I mean it’s kind of like and it just looking back now I’m just like I just stood up for myself and it actually worked better for me you know and it’s kind of it’s stuff like that you know it’s kind of it’s just taking control and yeah you said that hard hardheaded but it also takes a lot of people yeah get sucked into this whole yeah you’re kind of expected to have massage and it’s like guy’s like why and you feel like you’re putting a guy out of the job almost because he’s like the guy who supposed to be working for you is like oh you know and I’m just like well no I just don’t feel good off it so it’s not nothing personal I just you know but talking about that kind of growing into your own identity you made the decision at an early age to switch your from GB to Ireland obviously an Irish mother GB father you grew up in GB is that a decision that you were happy with all through your career did you feel more Irish or more at home represented Oreland or was there a little bit of fomo saying yeah maybe that was a hasty decision at a young age no I mean there’s no I made the decision and I was totally happy with it because I just felt more uh more welcome you know and it was a case of like obviously since I even when I was like before I even started cycling I had the I I’ve spent my summers in Ireland and it was always watching the Steven Ro Grand Road Grand Prix in Dublin in Med you lefted me there one night you came and you left field oh yeah yeah that but and we literally like from even from that I close contact with the Irish Federation from then and then obviously I ended up being British from school point of view because it was just easy to do national series and stuff went to France and it was like a case of yeah well which when I very much got the cold shoulder from GB it was kind of like okay well like if I’ve got Ireland who really wanted me to be a part of it and I can actually go there and actually feel part of Irish cing and actually help grow something really special and it’s uh yeah I mean it was very happy with my decision especially the reaction I got from the French Cy Community people seem to prefer IR cyclist there definitely a bit of a but also isn’t it a weird thing where we talk about Talent Development we use the word talent development you take GB but they’re not actually developing Talent what they’re doing is identifying people who are already talented because you don’t know what the finished product is going to be like you know they take pure raw materials that are equal one of them comes out Dan Martin ends up 19 gr tours winning monuments you know they passed on that because you didn’t have in their eyes early signs of some arbitrary metric that they Define as Talent they’re really just Talent spotters by their definition and it’s not even an objective definition of what talent is it’s someone’s total subjective opinion he looks like he could be a bike rider he you know has panach or some stupid other metric and they form a selection based on that and then you’re in the GP Academy and obviously that’s going to accelerate your progression it seems like a weird system for spotting Talent as opposed to developing talent I mean it also could be I mean just smizing here but like if your personality fits as well and obviously as I just like we kind of talked about already I was very much my own individual person I was like no I’m going to go to I’m going to go do this I’m going to do this I’m like you know and if you don’t fit into a system if you do that whereas I think I recycling is much more accommodating as far as like okay you want to go do that that’s fine great we’ll support you doing that whereas you with like GB is like no do it our way or not at all you know this is we think this is best for you so you need to do it like this you know and it’s kind of like and maybe that’s also where I felt more much more at home and more more free you know and it just suited me as a person to be and yeah I just say we’ve always like that like Irish Rugby has always been supported heavily I remember when we were uh my I do I should do my book plog actually chase by pandas this is in the book as well I remember when I was at uh obviously with Catholic School Growing Up near Birmingham and primary school and I remember the 1994 like World Cup like we were the Irish team we were the Irish team you I was P Bono in go you know it wasn’t like it it wasn’t yeah it it wasn’t obviously I don’t England made that made that World Cup but it was it was just a case if we were every I grew up around yeah a lot of Irish families in in the UK as well so it was uh yeah it was always very much uh my my basically my dad my dad would also have been Irish if he could have changed put it that way did your you know your strong self identity and sort of you know for one of a better expression pigheadedness when you came up against equally stubborn characters through your career like I’m thinking your time of quickstep specifically and Patrick Le faav is a you know a famous famously difficult depending on what reports you read famously difficult person to get along with with did you clash with Patrick Le faer or what’s that relationship like I I had a fantastic relationship Patrick and still do you know I mean to show the obviously he comes across in the media as far as some of the stuff he says and he’s quite outspoken but as far as I was concerned he was very always very honest very and that’s where I am as well I tell if I don’t like something I tell him and there was a very open relationship as far as that goes and obviously I I also performed always you know so I think if I had been Had a Bad season he would have been maybe a little bit different but I mean just like when I won in 2018 at the tour one of the first messages I got was from Patrick saying congratulations you know and and that’s from right through to now like no not so much now obvious retired but until I until I retired if I had a good result he’d sent me a message you know and that’s the only team manager who’s ever done that a team owner who’s like you know he’s still and that team in general you know just like I’m still in contact with half that I only had two years there but I still get messages from directors even Swan years like it’s just no that hasn’t happened from any other team Riders as well weird it feels like Patrick lafaver says publicly maybe what everyone’s thinking and he’s no filter on his thoughts you know something you might text like one of your best mates or have a couple of good mates and we’ll always do a bit of an analysis of tactics or something after a stage we bouncing whatsapps by back and forth they’re definitely not for everyone for anyone else’s viewing like if I put any of these things up as a tweet you know I’m cancelled the podcast is gone it feels like he says that type of stuff like do you remember his comment about Bennett he said something like leaving Bora hand grov and telling everyone who’s been bullied depressed and bankrupt only to return 14 months later it’s like an abusive woman who returns home after domestic violence it’s like though his phone’s bugged or something isn’t it like yeah it is yeah like and it’s true is it it’s just like it’s uh yeah I mean it creates clicks for doesn’t it but it’s honestly you just got to be careful now I mean it’s cycling uh the fact he get so many clicks shows how uh I mean yeah obviously he shouldn’t be like you say he doesn’t have a filter and it’s maybe he doesn’t understand how far these things go still it’s like that you say one thing and it can explode so quickly but he kind of reminds me of Alex Ferguson at Manchester United where it created this US versus them like I’m fascinated with Team culture and quickstep Through the Years seem to have preserved this amazing you know they call themselves The Wolf Pack and you maybe that’s largely a marketing message but it feels like this is a band of brothers that are in this together and anyone that leaves quickstep a couple of exceptions including yourself people that leave quickstep normally don’t have a positive career trajectory afterwards it’s I was definitely the best years of my career there obviously I did well after there after leaving quickstep but I mean it’s just because it’s such a nice atmosphere to race in I mean that looks like it’s changed a little bit there obviously they got a bit more pressure but where that comes from is they put all their eggs a lot of their eggs in the Remco basket which is at a necessity because of obviously he’s the Belgian Superstar but I think we look back to when I was there we had like 10 really not 10 Riders who are probably not top 10 riders in the world but 10 really good Riders could all win whereas now you look at the roster and you’re like well how many guys are actually like in the top 20 cyclist in the world you know and it’s kind of like it’s just Remco maybe mer can he obviously wins quite often but there’s you don’t have that same like we just spread the pressure on each other because you know that okay today is my day but and literally I remember in the team boss like before the start of races it’ be like right guys we know you want to win so just go out there and R race your bikes hard enjoy El and see what the result is you know that was a team that was a team briefing you know and it’s like it’s like as a Ry you’re like yeah these guys just believe in me they they where other teams you have this mentality of like right guys you’ve got to try and win today it’s like well yeah I know I want to win as well and if I don’t win there’s nobody going to be more pissed off than me like you know see you don’t just have to go at me for not for not winning like because I if I could have won I would have won because I want to win you know and it’s like this kind of it was real standing as far as like I we got me and Julian got like second and third in flesh the one year um we should be pretty happy with that we just gut it you know because he just wanted to win it and yeah the team was you know and it’s kind of didn’t matter if it was me or Julian but it was just like we just wanted to be Val Verde and it was it was this case of but as I say You’ always when in that team we always had this situation when we winning 50 60 races a year you’re like oh don’t if I don’t win today he’ll go and win tomorrow or he this guy will go you know and that’s really nice as a rider to have that backup whereas obviously we’ve seen now like Remco got knocked out inia bass country injured then they’re struggling through the ardens to find like have having a backup plan whereas when I was there like Julian got knocked out the end with a an injury well they still me I was the I was the leader for it they like so it’s yeah it just show that’s a good really good example of how Sion has changed hey Ro man excuse the short Interruption I love riding the bike but on account of being so busy with the podcast at the moment I’m now what’s called a Time crunched Rider I never thought I’d see the day but I have a tool I’m using W bike to keep myself sharp and on point with specific sessions to maximize that available training time I have a w bike atam right here in the recording studio beside me and when I have an hour in between interviews I jump on it’s removing all the friction points for me just no more 10 minute setup unfolding legs banging my knees off stuff getting my hands dirty usual connection issues it just works every single time the atom’s perfect for virtual racing as well because it has crisp gear changes it has 1% accuracy and it has Max gradient capability of up to 25% if you’re looking for an indoor trainer I honestly couldn’t recommend this any higher I’ve been using a w bike since 2013 honestly it’s the last indoor trainer that you’re ever going to need if you head on over to what bike.com now and use code roadman 10 that’s r o a d m n TN and that’s going to get you 10% off your W bike yeah Dan you bounced around Karm Quick Step UAE some of the biggest teams in the world what was there one team had a toxic culture versus one team had an amazing culture and what goes to create a toxic versus a winning culture I mean it was always part of my decision making for a team to look into it you know and obviously the toxic is a strong word the when I hit the UAE team it was kind of it was a team very much in transition and an incredibly nice group of people just old school you know there was not a bad I never hit I was luy enough never really to have a bad culture you know there was there was years when like 2015 when I wasn’t going good and in Garmin my last year at gin and it yeah it when you’re the when you’re the leader of the team and you’re it’s not going well it’s obvious that people like start to put pressure on you but it was in a negative way and that’s why it made my results even worse you know because it have started to feel really a lot of pressure and that’s where the Quick Step mentality is that’s why it was perfect to go there from Canada because it was like it was a no pressure environment almost you know there’s no expectation and it’s kind of I always there’s a way of putting pressure on riders that that is quite it’s a very difficult balance to strike as far as like putting pressure in a positive way and not in a negative way not like and and some teams put pressure on riders that they’re like come on go out there and prove yourself it’s like what do you mean I have to prove yourself to me you sign me like you if you sign me on the team you believe I’m a good Rider why do suddenly so you don’t believe in me anymore and it creates self-d whereas if like the Quick Step mentality that’s why I thrive there because it’s always the case of you’re in this team because you’re a bloody good bik Rider go out there and like like we believe in you just enjoy racing your bike and that that’s it’s a very fine line just those little words of psychology that can really switch it in a brain for a rider and that’s why I mean you see the UA team now with Tad you know he doesn’t feel I don’t know I’m what’s most impressive about Tad is that he doesn’t feel and he doesn’t seem to feel this pressure he’s just like kind of He’s Got The Whole weight of that team on his shoulders pretty much and it’s just like whatever if I win I win if not and that’s the fact he’s managed to hold on to that you see a lot of riders crumble under that like weight of expectation but he’s just so ridiculously good like you know and maybe it’s the it’s was as cycl fans conditioned post that whole Armstrong era of being skeptical when someone has this much dominance is R partti you worries that any of these performances aren’t natural you know what I mean I’ve Liv your whole career you know I even left cross overarm at the end of his his comeback year and you know he just you just have to sit back and watch the sport as an entertainment thing because you know there’s only one person who knows and I mean my my performance has been questioned you know I want two monuments and stages a tour whatever or not and it’s like you have people on social media questioning you you know and I kind myself pretty fortunate that most people believed in what I did you know which is really quite humbling that they trust me you know and and it’s I think yeah watching the performances now obviously it’s there is a lot of domination going on but there’s only at the end of day there’s only one guy who knows and that’s him himself and how how are they supposed to prove what they’re doing is or isn’t you know it’s problem how do you prove a negative like how do I prove that I don’t do something it’s a it’s a weird bden of proof that we’re asking of these athletes and we a question you already coming in about it and I said exactly that is like you need to just trust unless because that’s how our system works it’s you know whether it’s a criminal justice system or it’s a doping system it’s you need to have a positive you know weight evidence saying somebody has broken anti-doping protocols or criminal law or whatever it is you can’t ask to put a put a like a negative reverse Barden on themselves prove your innocence how do you prove your innocence I don’t even even think that I think we just need to watch the sport for what it is you know and at the end of the day it doesn’t really you know it’s just a case of yeah we’re never going to know either way you know we might do if something does happen we might end up finding out with something but on the other side of it it’s like it’s just it’s an entertainment business you know and it’s kind of you as as a rider obviously I was directly involved and were beaten by a lot of guys who tested tested positive afterwards I mean look at the look at the 2009 top 10 in jro lombardia you know I think I was eighth or ninth and it’s like there’s a there’s a few guys on that list you know who were and and it’s looking back it’s just part of it and obviously I was affected but you just got to be at piece of it you know because it’s just like a case of well it happened you know and and it’s it is what it is and it’s it’s um but yeah I mean it’s as knowing the guy a lot of the guys persones still I’d hope that what we’re seeing is is pure but you know it’s uh as I say you know there’s only one guy there’s only that that individual who knows you mentioned ear on two monuments over the course of your career were 10 years on is it too soon to talk about the 2014 Le Baston Le 10th year anniversary yeah I kind of missed that one this year actually I was like and it’s also a 10th year anniversary of the posle in Bel in Belfast so it this is not a good uh yeah it’s a good week to talk or or maybe not uh like so I what I can remember I remember like screaming at the TV and being like Oh my God he’s got it second year in R he’s one Le what a tap in coming here I think you were bridging up to was it poso andoo and look you were nailed on it looked like did you T ped they just slowed out talk about what happened there was some oil on the road or something some diesel or oil on the road and we looked to the road afterwards and it was just like yeah I didn’t touch a pedal because I mean look at it I literally the year before I sprinted around the corner out the saddle it’s not a corner you need to stop ped people like oh he click a pedal what like it’s like no you can pedal around that corner it’s not really a corner you know so uh yeah my front wheel just slid out no idea how or why but I guess a will or something but yeah it was a I was literally I even just backed off the pedals just before the corner to say to just recover like briefly for the Sprint because I knew I had it you know I was I had it and it was uh yeah I mean the one that got away I mean obviously it would have been a lot more painful if I had one the year before but it was still but the ironia that is and I remember I remember clear as Day saying the interviews after the after the race finished I was like oh you know what but it’s really rubbish but at least I know the form’s good and I got the jro next week and I see what happens stage one of the cheiro so yeah but well so you kind of straddled between you’re mainly stage hunted in the grand Tours you know with a lot of success but you did have a brief Fay into trer Roy GC was a 2020 in the welta year Road GC nicoo didn’t do the stage hunting so much he typically played around that GC game especially in Z2 or years how do you feel about that Looking Back Now are you happy with your decision to go more stage hunting than try and ride the general Ro man I’m going to date myself here but I’ve been riding the bike for almost 20 years and in that time I’ve cycled through every cycling apparel brand out there and I kept swapping out different apparel Brands each season until I found lall there’s something really different about laal and as soon as you slip into the gear you notice it feels different it feels better I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with yanto Barker on the podcast he’s the lall founder and his dedication to crafting the fastest most refined cycling apparel out there it’s nothing short of inspiring yanto isn’t just trying to create gear I get the feeling he’s actively and obsessively trying to perfect cycling gear trust me as soon as you slip on the theall kit as soon as you zip up that Jersey you can feel that commitment the proof for the call it’s in the pudding this is the same kit Jay hindley wore when he clinched overall victory in the jir Natalia there’s a confidence that comes at wearing a pearl that’s been battle tested and Podium proven in races like this year to tellal you trust me feeling good on the bike means you’re going to perform better if you have a second I highly advise you to jump on over to la. CC and check out their amazing range of CAS and experience this feeling for yourself oh I mean ironically I think now would be I I be really suited to riding GC now because of how the racing is you know it’s kind of I was just a lot more aggressive I was like I was trying to win most days and I mean I still got what was it how many times I think it was seven times in top 10 on GC so it wasn’t that bad so yeah no it was just a different type of GC racing and a lot of it was just B obviously with the sky years it was just dominated by a controlled way of racing that didn’t suit me and I think now obviously would be a lot I’d be really suited to to racing GC now because it was I wasn’t actively not riding GC I was just trying to win stages as well and that’s yeah that that’s just the way it’s kind of like a little bit like tday now pogach you know like he’s going out there every day just looking to try and win stages instead of just this energy conservation which was the vot 10 years ago like it was just save as much energy as possible and then smash the Tom TR that how grand Tours have won before whereas now it’s a lot more aggressive and if there was four or five guys racing as aggressively as I used to race the racing would have been a bit more different but I found myself very very often attacking and just having Sky riding a Tempo behind with everybody else on their wheel and then everybody would wait for the last 500 meters and you know and not because they yeah obviously I kind of proved it was possible to attack but looking back it was pretty stupid to attack you know it wasn’t the it wasn’t the best tactic but that’s just how I like to R face and it was like a case of yeah I mean I I don’t have reget I don’t live regrets ever because you can’t change it can you you know so it’s uh I do yeah it’s more about what you learn as far as the training and nutrition all that it’s like I knew that like back in 2015 it would have been a lot better Rider but so how do you go about deconstructing one of those gr hor stedge wins when the Stag is announced do you start then and look at it and go okay Stage Nine that’s one that suits me and then try and reverse engineer the demands that that into your training or how how how did that deconstruction process work oh you just you just prepar for a grand tour as a whole you know so just you’re just getting into good condition I think it’s a lot less scientific than people will think as far as it’s you look at the stages that suit you of course but not you don’t train specifically around that for a grand tour unless you just are going for stages but even then it’s just about getting fit and then also I mean you don’t want to put too many eggs into one basket you know it’s like it’s you really need to FOC focus on yeah just pure condition and form and then having the legs to actually do it obviously a lot of the training is around Mountain training climbs and especially me as well the explosiveness was always how i’ wi stages the Sprint or whatever so they’re keeping that in the trading as well who was there you got to WR of some incredible Riders is there anyone that left a lasting impact on you and you look back and you say oh that one person was hugely impactful as a teammate on my career uh not really no I mean it was just yeah there’s too many guys to think of off the cuff you know it was kind of like uh yeah obviously I I had a lot because I stayed at Garmin for so many years a lot and there were really my formative years yeah you know I had we we created bonds when there was a group of was just going around racing together you know and especially the ens group we had we had some I had some really good friends like I mean Nathan H was a really good like really good friends got really close and the Ryder hedal was a really key guy in my both Catalonia and Le victories and then other races as well you know so in when I want to sayage the tour as well you know we just worked really well together and it was just a really good group of guys like Christian Vander and David Miller as well were also really like they were the kind of the mentor figures in the team when when I was when I the first turn pro you know so yeah those guys definitely helped form my character moving forward and then yeah it’s it’s such a it’s a team it’s a business you know you don’t really get I was only two years in every team after that so you don’t really get the time to really form these strong relationships or then that’s why quickstep was pretty special because we we were just a good good group of mates just riding around you know and it was just like yeah it was a real Good Chemistry Between Us why did you leave quickstep I mean budgetary reasons you know it wasn’t I was basically like begging Patrick to make me an offer and he’s just like I just don’t have anything like the team just growing and I was the one that had to make way you know and it was a case of obviously I I had a good offer at UAE to go and lead the team and yeah I saw the potential in UEI and obviously the team it became it’s since become but it just took a bit longer to get there then we envisioned you know the idea was that it would be the team it is now in already in 2018 2019 but obviously it took a few more years to to get to that level than they planned and I was key in building that team you know and that’s what they wanted me as part of the team as well they wanted they signed me to actually help with that process and so yeah it was uh yeah I mean that’s it’s obvious the first year was really difficult I still managed to run top 10 in the tour and win a stage but it was uh it and it was a challenging experience obviously Italian culture very stuck in their ways and that’s what it was during the 2018 season that it really became the team it is now and had a bit of a revolution to become the actual the team the team that obviously tday is they’re winning winning a few Fair few races now so yeah and like when you get towards that point of your career where you’re you don’t really know if of one contract left two contracts left you know you don’t have six contracts left does it change from a solely Cy and focus lens where you’re like oh I need a support structure that’s going to allow me to win the biggest races two I need to make sure I have enough cash in my bank accounts for Life After cycling cuz it’s coming closer to the end I never really thought about that cuz I kind of I I always knew I’d figure something out and be comfortable it was more a case of UAE offer me the chance to be a team leader to actually like come in and lead the team at at to the France and that was yeah they wanted they were saying yeah build a team around me give me everything I needed to have a run at the podium at the tour and I just got sick in 2017 and it was like okay well let’s at the end of the day I mean when when you get sick for the tour and I mean that 2017 season I mean I love back I got I think I got first I I did when I finished at the tour I had 60 race days and I’d got top 10 on 30 of them you know and it third in parin E like all these results like second in the age second in flesh like sixth at the tour would have been with a broken back I would have I probably might have been Podium at the tour who knows we never we’ll never know there you know and it was like when you get to that point of results wise like whichever team he siging for money’s it’s going to be good you know like you so it was it wasn’t a financial decision it was just purely a case of which team is going to offer me the best opportunity here you know and I got made like looking back obviously yeah it just didn’t develop as fast as I’d hoped the team you know and obviously got to stag it’s one of the best teams in the world now just took I say just didn’t get there while I was there yeah you have such aazing consistency like I flicked onto your pro cycl stats before and like it’s absolutely ridiculous like your consistency basically across every year but I think that consistency in a lot of ways paints over a different story when You’ followed your career maybe as closely as any other cycling fan has like we we all follow the Irish Riders so we know you have those setbacks like crashing out of the year or like the crash in Le but you seemed almost unfazed by the setbacks if you look at a riter now like Eddie dumbar who you know buckets of potential but he just keeps hitting the deck and he keeps having setback after setback you know what sort of advice would you give him on dealing with setbacks to keep pushing forward it’s definitely there’s definitely a certain amount of psychology around it you know because I think it’s when you do I got into a almost like a rhythm you get stuck in a rut as far as like crash crash crash and I think I had like five or six crashes in the space of like nine months from starting starting at that LE age and then was it starting I can’t remember no it started in the Walter in 2013 and it finished like even as late as the Walter in 2014 you know even though I was 7th on GC I still had a bad crash there and like and it was um you know it’s almost like the difference is you kind of end up always thinking like expecting to crash whereas if you’re in a good place mentally you’re like you see a crash happen you’re like your instinct is to do everything you can to not crash and that might sound silly but you don’t have time to think it’s a natural it’s an instinct it’s a it’s a reflex whereas if you if you go through a series of crashes you get to the point where you see a crash you’re like oh here we go again and you jump on top of the pile you know and it’s kind of like it’s and that’s why you see these guys I went through it myself and it it takes a really difficult step a positive step somehow to jump get out of that routine that routine but it’s and yeah it’s a challenge for sure and I mean I was just lucky to have really good people around me but also to change the psychology behind it as well and just be like okay and just go for a good run of I guess not crashing but it’s yeah it’s it’s a real difficult one you know and it’s psychologically I think it’s it’s a big challenge because obviously I think a lot of the sports all these guys all the patan is super talented you know they’re all like eating drinking training to the absolute maximum maximum getting to the point now where yeah there is a slight difference in genetics as far as making the difference but a lot of the difference we’ seeing is psychology you know and that that ability to focus concentrate and also like put every of it into their effort I know you don’t ride as much as you used to ride but word on the street is you’re coming back to Ireland and pinning on the numbers for the tap the tour well you know never got the chance to really race in Ireland I actually did a tour of Ireland in 2008 for one day and I was violently ill and L had a fever and had to stop so so yeah as there’s no professional races left but like obviously I got invited by ASO and to really be part of bringing the roads of the tour of friends back to Ireland and bringing this experience to Ireland and to Kerry to Kanani and it’s yeah 7eventh of September this year really looking forward to it and it’s an excuse to train as well really need an excuse to drive my bik I’m literally I think I genuinely think that I’m doing the long rout I believe it’s 135k there’s a second is 95 km and uh that probably going to be the longest ride I’ve done since J Lombardi in 2021 so I really need to get on my bike so it’s uh yeah I’m going in the right place here Ando to drain but yeah I know I’m really I’m I’m still working with the ASO guys to make it as as exciting a day as possible it’s going be really cool and yeah I’ve seen their events before uh yeah the organizers it’s it’s at one head of effort to actually bring this the show The toour Fan show to to the to Ireland and yeah hopefully we’ll see as many people there as possible and also I’m G to drop in as well we just launched today and ATT ta a tour ta to Ireland training camp here in Andor with myself ah tough class uh on like I’ve launched a training camp company here may basically an excuse to get me on the bike but um yeah so I’m doing a 4- day 4day training over the bank holiday the first bank holiday in August uh yeah yeah I thought just a basically come rideing me in here in Andora I’ll give you some tips for race there get some Fitness uh explore Andora I mean the main reason behind that was also because everybody keeps asking me why I live in Andora and it’s because the riding’s hard but it’s bloody amazing place to ride so uh yeah we’ve I got a little training camp tour company here now hosting cyclist cycling events how do people sign up for that uh like apro events.com I think it’s on the atap island Instagram as well today we launched it uh yeah we’ve got four or five camps throughout the year uh but that one specifically around obviously talking about the tap Island getting you prepared I think it’s five weeks before four weeks before the event so a good time to come to altitude and just try and get altit trainer even on altitude training now well yeah exactly the the weather should be really good as well but yeah no super excited for a tap Island though and uh it’s actually it’s gonna be a pleasure to actually ride on not competitively I say competitively on Irish roads but it’s definitely not a race I will not be racing you will not see me the front of that thing no you will we’re going to have a 100 EUR bet on I’m going to start training 100 EUR best me and you straight up I’ll just be I’ll be on the well maybe yeah well I’ll be on the gide the night before maybe we’ll be that’s my only chance actually that’s the that that that’s the aim that’s the aim of the weekend I think just make it a real fun social weekend and just uh yeah I mean I mean I’m just excited to see how it turns out it’s really good fun but yeah let’s hope for good weather cuz I mean it could be pretty brutal yeah carry you on a rainy day Dan it’s absolute pleasure congratulations on an amazing career and yeah we’ll have to get you back on the podcast for round two shortly yeah for sure yeah love come back Cheers Cheers buddy so if you like this video you should definitely check out this video cuz I know you’re going to love it and don’t forget to subscribe to the channel