At today’s Tour of Lombardy, Dan Martin will end a key part of his cycling career as he races for the final time with a team run by Slipstream sports, which he has done ever since he went pro.

Despite being the defending champion, Martin is just back from a collarbone injury and has only raced in Milan-Turin and Gran Piemonte since he was declared fit to race, meaning he is still and underdog for the 245km race.

“I’m not feeling any pressure at all and simply enjoying the race gives me the greatest motivation of all. I love riding the race, and it’s going to be my last one with Slipstream Sports. It’s going to be an emotional day for a number of reasons,” Martin told Cyclingnews.

“I’ve not trained for the last five weeks just so that I can ride round,” he said. “Tomorrow is really important to me and I’ve had it in the back of my mind for the last three weeks. I’ve been training in Andorra, doing a lot of climbing, and I’m really strong. It’s just a case of whether I can make that race-winning move.”

“It’s been a long few weeks, obviously, but I’m the defending champion at Lombardy so how can I not be motivated. I’ve been training really hard but I know that’s not the same as racing.”