Dan Martin, far right starting his watch, gets underway in the 10km race that saw him blow out of the water the times of current and former pros for the distance
Dan Martin may be closing in on his 40th birthday, with more than four years having passed since he hung up his racing wheels, but the Monument and Grand Tour stage winner has clearly been keeping himself ticking over, to say the least.
He lined out in a 10km road race in Spain on New Year’s Eve and set a blistering time, finishing 16th of the near 11,000 runners in what was a major event featuring international athletes who competed at the Paris Olympics.
Martin also obliterated the times run by other current and former world class pro riders over 10km, with Tom Dumoulin having run 32:38 at Groene Loper 10k Run in Maastricht in 2021 while still racing for Jumbo Visma.
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) in November ran 10km – well, 10.05km to be precise – in 33:52, though that was out training rather than in a race situation. But Martin has stepped up and given us a look, yet again, at the extent of his powers once he puts his mind to it.
Dan Martin winning Il Lombardia back in 2014 after a decisive late move from the leadering group into Bergamo (Photo: Gian Mattia D’Alberto)
Ireland’s Martin managed to break the 30-minute marker for the 10km, clocking a time of 29:53 at the B100 Cursa dels Nassos in Barcelona on New Year’s Eve. His wife, Jess – who represented Great Britain in the 10,000m at the Rio Olympics in 2016 – ran the 5km event on the night, in a time of 15:39, placing 8th in the women’s race.
Dan Martin’s men’s 10km event was won by Abdessamad Oukhelfen, the Moroccan-born Spanish international who represented Spain at the Paris Olympics and has won medals at the European Crosscountry Championships, in both the team and individual categories.
Oukhelfen was well out on his own, clocking a time of 27:59, which was 1:17 faster than runner-up, Spain’s Ismail Atriki Mehrak. After the top two, only seconds separated the best of the rest. And Martin was one of just 18 men to break the 30-minute marker, which is an incredibly fast time for the 10km.
While the Irishman, who is based mostly in Andorra, is now busy being a father, running an investment business and doing some working behind the scenes at pro cycling races, he clearly hasn’t lost the competitive edge that secured him so many wins on the bike.
He won Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2013 and Il Lombardia the following year. He also counts two stage wins at the Tour de France, two at La Vuelta and one at the Giro d’Italia among his 22 career victories.
B100 Cursa dels Nassos 10km, Barcelona
