Daniel Martin feels lucky after completing the Criterium du Dauphine 2012
Daniel Martin of Team Garmin-Barracuda crashed during the stage 1 of the Criterium du Dauphine and badly injured his shoulder.
He took Samuel Sanchez and a number of other cyclists with him during the final 47 kilometres of the race.
The Irishman was lucky to have survived any major injuries as no broken bones were reported after the scans.
The cyclist managed to complete the eight-day race and considers himself fortunate to make it through towards the end of the.
Daniel told Cyclingnews, “I’m really proud to have finished the race now because it’s been a really tough week”.
“The physios and the chiropractor have been great and the guys have been incredible at keeping the morale up.
“I just count myself pretty lucky because I was pretty sure that I’d broken my shoulder when I crashed”.
“So to come away from that with just some muscular damage is pretty good”.
“I didn’t have the strength in my right arm to support myself when I took my left hand off the bars to eat”.
The 25-year-old currently holds the 19th overall position with 132 UCI points to his credit at the UCI World Tour Elite Men rankings as of July 2012.
Joaquim Rodriguez is leading the category with 404 points with Tom Boonen, Bradley Wiggins, Vincenzo Nibali and Samuel Sanchez at the next four positions with 366,335, 272 and 252 points respectively.
His top season performances include the fourth overall position during the Tour of Catalunya (60 UCI points), a fifth place finish at the Liege-Bastogne-Liege (50 UCI points) and a sixth place finish at the La Fleche Wallonne (22 UCI points).
Daniel holds as many as three Grand Tour appearances to his credit, including one Giro d’Italia and two Vuelta a Espana participations under his belt.
He marked the professional debut with Team Garmin-Barracuda in 2008 and is continuing his fifth consecutive season with the side.
Martin has still not confirmed his inclusion at the Tour de France but the cyclist’s current form makes him a strong Tour contender.
The 99th edition of the French Grand Tour will be held between June 30 and July 22 with a total number of 3,496.9 kilometres during the three weeks of racing.
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