CYCLING:IRISH ROAD race champion Daniel Martin is in final preparation for his first race of the year, the Tour of the Mediterranean, which starts next Wednesday. The Garmin Slipstream rider heads into his second season as a professional with a good degree of form.

“Training has been going really well,” he told The Irish Times yesterday. “I have only missed one day’s training all winter and that was due to the weather. Our recent training camp in Silver City was incredible, with sunny skies and warm temperatures for the entire three weeks there. All the guys on the team seem really fit and it was a lot of fun.”

The 22-year-old is back in his base in Girona, making final preparations before racing. He’s had several months away from competition and sounds eager to get back.

“I’ll do the Tour of the Mediterranean, then the Tour of Murcia and the Vuelta Castilla y Leon. With the team time trial in the Tour of the Mediterranean, we are really motivated to get a result, especially after the team’s win in the same discipline this week in the Tour of Qatar. We will definitely be strong, but there are some other very good TT teams at the race like Caisse d’Epargne and Barloworld, who are specifically preparing for the discipline.”

Martin had an excellent debut season, winning the Route du Sud and the Irish championships. He was also fourth in the Tour of Britain and 10th in the Tour of Portugal. He won’t name specific targets this year, as the strength of the team means he might spend some races riding for others on the squad.

Being selected for the Tour de France team is, however, a major goal and, if he builds on last year, seems a realistic prospect.

FIXTURES – Sunday: Connacht training race, 10.30am, Bohola Community Centre. Downhill winter league, 11am, Cloon, Co Wicklow. Bangor XC league race – off.