The 20-year-old became the sixth different Soudal Quick-Step rider to get onto the podium at the World Championships in Scotland.
After Mauro Schmid, Rémi Cavagna and Jannik Steimle each took a medal in the Mixed Relay TTT, Ethan Vernon became Elimination World Champion and Remco Evenepoel powered to gold in the individual time trial, now the young Slovakian showed his quality by finishing top three at the end of an attritional race.
Saturday’s 168.4km event had everything: rain, crashes, attacks, and suspense until the very end. Martin was at all times attentive, keeping an eye on the many moves that began coming as the race unfolded on the tricky circuit in Glasgow and making sure he remained with the pre-race favourites as the peloton splintered.
With just a couple of laps until the finish, the 20-year-old from Nesluša found himself in a strong move from where Axel Laurance attacked, putting some daylight between him and the others. Svrcek worked hard together with his companions to bring the Frenchman back – as the gap hovered around 15 seconds the entire time – but they narrowly missed out on making the catch, which left them fighting for the other two medals.
In the closing 150 meters, as the road began to slightly rise one last time, Martin unleashed a strong sprint and took bronze just behind Portugal’s Antonio Morgado, a huge result for him and Slovakia, who returned on the podium of this race for the first time since 2007, when Peter Velits powered to victory in Stuttgart.
“I am incredibly happy with my race and with the result I got here. I did my best on a very hard and relentless parcours and I don’t think there’s something I could have done better. To be on the podium at the World Championships is a huge result, one which gives me a lot of confidence for my next outings with Soudal Quick-Step”, Martin said after the race.
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
