CYCLING – LENNY Martinez of Bahrain Victorious delivered a strong performance on stage 3 of the Tour de Romandie, finishing second after outsprinting most of his general classification (GC) rivals on the final climb in Cossonay.
The 183km stage, which started and finished in Cossonay, featured a demanding course with 2,457 metres of elevation gain. The final showdown came on the third ascent of Cossonay, the 2.2km climb to the finish, averaging 5.7 per cent where Martinez demonstrated his climbing strength against some of the race’s top contenders.
Early in the stage, a breakaway of three riders – including Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Bauke Mollema (Lidl–Trek), and Huub Artz (Intermarché–Wanty) – built up a lead of over six minutes. With the gap closing and 53km to go, Küng launched a solo move, holding a 2:30 gap over the peloton. Max Van der Meulen led the initial chase on the Col de Mollendruz, and as the race approached the final climb, more teams began to commit to closing the gap, including Kamil Gradek, who joined Max in the effort.
Küng was eventually reeled in with 11km remaining, just ahead of the third and final ascent of Cossonay. The top climbers went head-to-head in the closing kilometres, with Jay Vine (UAE Emirates) launching a decisive attack 900m from the line to take the stage win. Martinez followed strongly, claiming second place ahead of João Almeida (UAE Emirates), who completed the podium in third.
Martinez commented after the stage: “Vine attacked a bit earlier on the climb. I was thinking, I go, I don’t go. I was a bit behind the guys and a bit blocked also, and I was thinking in the end the group could close on him. He was strong, and okay, second place with a sprint a bit on the flat like this is not too bad at the end.
“Another stage tomorrow, super hard with one-hour climb, and we will see how the body reacts on this long climb.”
Martinez now moves up to eighth in the general classification. The battle for the yellow jersey continues today with the queen stage featuring the summit finish at Thyon 2000 – a decisive stage ahead of the final individual time trial in Geneva tomorrow.
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