CYCLING – TEAM Bahrain Victorious rider Lenny Martinez had an impressive outing yesterday in the third stage of the 83rd Paris-Nice race in France.
The elite men’s road event is part of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Tour calendar for 2025.
Martinez narrowly missed out on the podium at the end of the 163.4-kilometre leg, taking fourth place after the final climb to finish just two seconds behind stage winner Joao Almeida of UAE Team Emirates-XRG. Almeida had a winning mark of three hours 37 minutes and six seconds.
Fourth is the best stage ranking so far for Martinez. The Frenchman was previously out of the top 10 in the previous stages.
Australian Jack Haig was Bahrain Victorious’ next best rider yesterday in 36th place, while Italian Edoardo Zambanini was 50th. Briton Fred Wright came 79th, Pole Kamil Gradek was 99th, and Slovenian Matevz Govekar 100th, while Colombian teammate Santiago Buitrago did not finish.
Returning to the bunch after a puncture, Buitrago slipped and hit the road and will be unable to continue in the race, said the team.
Following yesterday’s results, Martinez climbed a massive 28 places to ninth overall on the general classification (GC) in the battle for the yellow jersey. He is just over a minute behind overall leader Jonas Vingegaard of Team Visma-Lease a Bike. Haig follows in 38th place, while Zambanini is in 46th as the squad’s third-best on the GC.
Martinez also climbed six places to third on the best young rider rankings for the white jersey. He is now just 36 seconds from current top-placer Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek team.
Bahrain Victorious improved five spots to sixth on the teams’ rankings after four stages.
Action in Paris-Nice continues today with the fifth stage, set to cover 203.3km. The eight-stage event will be covering a total of 1,212.6km in all.
Meanwhile, in the 60th Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy, another race being held as part of this year’s UCI World Tour, Bahrain Victorious ace Pello Bilbao came a solid 12th in the 239km third stage.
The Spaniard was part of the bunch sprint at the finish, which was spearheaded by Andrea Vendrame of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team, who won in 6:28:25.
Portuguese Afonso Eulalio was 35th in the leg for Bahrain Victorious, Italian Antonio Tiberi came 47th, and Australian Robert Stannard finished 92nd.
Italians Damiano Caruso in 117th and Andrea Pasqualon in 124th followed amongst the team’s riders, while Croatian Fran Miholjevic came 139th to round out the Bahrain Victorious contingent.
Tiberi climbed two places to third on the GC, while Bilbao improved 14 spots to 13th. Tiberi was also second in the best young rider rankings, and remained in the top 10 in the points standings for the green jersey and in the King of the Mountains ranking for the polka-dot jersey.
Bahrain Victorious also climbed three places to third in the race’s teams classification, 38 seconds behind leaders UAE Team Emirates-XRG.
The fourth of the seven-stage, 1,147.5km race will be held today across 190km.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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