Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) tested his legs and opened his lungs on the testing final circuit around the Superga climb at Milano-Torino on Wednesday, ending the race confident that he can perform at Saturday`s Il Lombardia. The Irishman became a father to twins on September 19 after quitting the Vuelta a Espaņa after stage 9 so that he could be at the birth. He has only ridden the World Championship road race in Innsbruck, Austria, since then, but he has clearly been mixing training with parental duties at home in Andorra in recent weeks, and was strong enough to be part of the front group that formed on the first climb of Superga. Martin suffered more on the second climb up to the finish and crossed the line 1:13 behind winner Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) but close to many of the riders he will face in the final Monument of the season on Saturday. His performance meant Martin was upbeat about how he felt, and as a consequence his hopes for Il Lombardia. `I`m really happy because I only flew to Italy on Tuesday and came from altitude in Andorra, so I was struggling to breathe. With a couple more days of adaption, I think I`ll be good,` Martin told Cyclingnews. `I really enjoyed riding Milan-Turin without any pressure, and I hope to do the same on Saturday. Hopefully we can get a result.` Martin was carefully to use `we` as he talked about his UAE Team Emirates squad. Fabio Aru also showed signs of form at Milano-Torino, going deep on the climb to Superga to finish ninth at 43 seconds, one place and a few seconds better than Egan Bernal (Team Sky). Another teammate, Jan Polanc, was in the top 25, while Rui Costa was again there to lend a hand.ADVERTISEMENT Of those three teammates, however, only Costa featured on the provisional start list for Il Lombardia a couple of days ahead of the race Martin won Il Lombardia in 2014 when the race started in Como and ended in Bergamo. He attacked before the final corner to beat a certa ...
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