CYCLING – LENNY Martinez claimed his third WorldTour stage victory of the season yesterday with a brilliant solo win on the final day of the Critérium du Dauphiné, finishing at Plateau du Mont-Cenis.
The triumph came at a place that holds precious memories for the young Frenchman, having trained there on his mountain bike with his father eight years ago.
Martinez entered the race with ambitions of finishing in the top 10 of the General Classification but struggled on the Queen Stage after being dropped on the Col de la Madeleine, losing valuable time. With GC hopes out of reach, he turned his attention to the final stage, determined to leave his mark.
The breakaway formed early and was allowed a gap of around three minutes by the peloton. With 8km to go and just Enric Mas (Movistar) remaining from the original breakaway, Martinez launched a decisive attack, dropping the Spaniard and going solo.
From that point on, the question was whether GC favourites Tadej Pogačar or Jonas Vingegaard would chase him down. But Martinez crested the Col du Mont-Cenis (9.6km at 6.9 per cent) with over 40 seconds in hand and held his lead all the way to the finish line to secure a memorable win ahead of the GC contenders.
Pogačar duly sealed the overall race victory, his first at the Dauphine.
An emotional Martinez at the finish line said: “Yesterday, I was really bad, and I hadn’t been feeling great the days before either. So I wasn’t expecting much today. But then I finally felt good at the start, so I decided to go for it. At one point, I thought Van der Poel was going to win, then I thought I was going to get caught by the Pogacar-Vingegaard duo a little later… It would have been a real shame, but it worked out!
“I was going all out until the last kilometre and it was only at the end that I really believed it was possible to win. I’m very happy with my performance in the Dauphiné. I came here for the overall classification: it didn’t work out, but I’ve salvaged the week.
“The team told me never to give up, so that’s why I tried again today. Now we can be proud of what we’ve done here with this victory. I hope to win in the Tour too, we’ll see.”
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