Irish Daniel Martin finished with a 25th place at the Tirreno-Adriatico overall. But the Garmin-Cannondale rider hopes to shine in Spain the next week. Indeed, he thinks the work done on Italian roads will help him to be in great condition at the Volta a Catalunya. The 2013 winner of this race hopes to finish on the overall podium.

"We have a really strong team going to Catalunya," Dan Martin told Cyclingnews. "We're going for a team result and one of us on the podium at least with me or Andre. It's a stellar field there, maybe even stronger than here - it's everyone here and from Paris-Nice together. It's going to be a great race."

He studied the route and he thinks that this edition suit him. "We know a lot of the roads, but it's a difference race this year. There isn't a 16km mountain top finish, there are a lot of shorter climbs and it's aggressive racing every day. Every day is an opportunity to gain or lose time. Every day you'll have to be switched on. I'm looking forward to it."

"Training was going well, but doing four hours at 50kph every day is a little different. I think you forget how different racing is from training. For me personally - obviously we didn't come away with any results, but we came away with a lot more fitness and I think for Catalunya next week I'm in a good position", he added. "I don't expect to come into effectively the first race of the year and try to get results - I always want to do something, but you have to be realistic. Catalunya and then the Ardennes are a goal, and they're still five weeks away. This is a really heavy block of racing. It's time to recover and fine tune."