Dan Martin looks set to leave the Cannondale-Garmin team at the end of this season. According to a report on www.cyclingnews.com, the Irishman has rejected a contract extension with the American team.
Martin has been with the team since the start of his professional career in 2008, and has taken big wins such as the Tour of Lombardy, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour of Poland and Tour of Catalonia. In addition, he has also won stages in the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana.
He has missed out on any big wins this season so far though. He came close in the Tour de France where he took second places in stages, as well as a fourth.
A number of teams have been linked with Martin in the past few weeks including Trek Factory Racing, Etixx-Quick Step and Team Sky. However, it appears that Team Sky will not be signing him.
Etixx will be looking to replace a number of big name riders who look to be leaving the team, including World Champion Michal Kwiatkowski, Rigoberto Uran and Michal Golas. If he does go to the Belgian team, he could be expected to share team leadership duties at the Ardennes classics and other races which suit his style with Julian Alaphilippe. The Frenchman finished in second place in both Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Flèche Wallonne this season.
Trek Factory Racing also have a number of riders who would be in a position to support Martin, including Bauke Mollema and Frank Schleck. Schleck is a previous winner of Amstel Gold, and would be well capable of supporting Martin in hilly races.
The Irishman is due to next line up at the Vuelta alongside Joe Dombrowski and Andrew Talansky. The Spanish race starts on August 22nd.
going to Teamsky?