"I'm looking forward to the tour as a fan": Tony Martin doesn't miss the dangerous torment

When the Tour de France starts in Copenhagen on Friday, a legend will be missing from the field: Tony Martin, five-time stage winner in the most important cycling race in the world, will be watching from afar after retiring.

"I'm looking forward to the tour as a fan": Tony Martin doesn't miss the dangerous torment

When the Tour de France starts in Copenhagen on Friday, a legend will be missing from the field: Tony Martin, five-time stage winner in the most important cycling race in the world, will be watching from afar after retiring. He's not wistful.

When the Tour de France starts in Copenhagen on Friday, a great sporting personality will be missing: Tony Martin, eight-time world champion, himself 13 times in the Tour of France, ended his great career last year. He misses the tour, but he doesn't miss the tour: "I'm really happy that I won't be there this year," said the 37-year-old on sport.de: "With all the euphoria, all the prestige and hype, for us For the driver, the tour is also an awful torment and a great danger. I also fell extremely often and hard."

The four-time time trial world champion, who has contested the Tour of France 13 times and reached the finish line in Paris seven times, will watch the race at home on the television in a relaxed manner. "After 13 years on the tour and not being home in the summer, I'm now enjoying my family vacation and looking forward to the tour as a fan," said Martin.

The top favorite for him is defending champion Tadej Pogacar, whom Martin's former Jumbo Visma captain Primoz Roglic is challenging. "I think it will be a duel between him and Roglic. Pogacar is physically very talented. He is an exceptional athlete at a similar level to Roglic," said Martin.

The decision could already be made on stages 11 and 12, when the planners of the Tour of France sent the field over the Galibier and then just one day later chased up to Alpe D'Huez at 1850 meters. But Martin warns: "You also have to survive the nervous flat stages in the first week. Keywords: edge wind, falls and cobblestones. Maybe one or the other ranking driver will be thrown back. If the top has crystallized afterwards, it will decisions are made at these stages."

Martin has a lot of confidence in the nine German professionals. "We don't have a driver at the start where you say: He'll shoot down a stage or go for the overall standings. You have to be that fair. But we have chances," he said, who himself completed five Tour de France stage wins: "If Bora rides smart, they have a lot of second row riders who can win stages in the moment of surprise. I'll keep my fingers crossed."

The long-time "Capitaine de Route", who enjoyed great respect as a veteran in the nervous fields of the biggest races and worked with an ordering hand, fell twice on his last tour in 2021: directly on the first stage he was attacked by a spectator who was carrying a There was a cardboard sign on the street, he was taken off his bike, then a few days later he fell again - this time he could no longer get on his bike and ended his great tour career with extensive abrasions in the hospital. A little later he announced the end of his career. In autumn 2021, Martin said goodbye with the world title in the time trial with the German mixed relay - it was the eighth world title for the native of Brandenburg.