CYCLING – TEAM Bahrain Victorious superstar Lenny Martinez climbed the podium in third yesterday on the fifth stage of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya after a demanding day in the high mountains, at the end of which he became the race’s leading young rider.
The 153.1 kilometre leg from La Seu d’Urgell towards La Molina marked the first major general classification (GC) test of the seven-stage event, with over 4,000 metres of climbing and a long final ascent.
Strong winds near the summit led organisers to adjust the finish location in the final kilometres.
After an early breakaway animated the stage, the race came back together on the approach to the final climb, where the pace steadily increased and the group of favourites was reduced.
On the decisive part of the ascent, Jonas Vingegaard of Team Visma-Lease a Bike made the difference with a solo move to take the stage victory ahead of Felix Gall of Decathlon CMA CGM Team. Martinez followed just behind in third a little over a minute behind, riding his own pace in the final kilometres.
Bahrain Victorious’s Santiago Buitrago nearly joined Martinez in the top 10 but narrowly missed out by a few seconds, taking 11th in yesterday’s stage. Afonso Eulalio came 47th, Jakob Omrzel was 55th, Rainer Kepplinger came 109th, and Nikias Arndt and Matevz Govekar followed in 136th and 137th, respectively.
With yesterday’s result, Martinez moved up to third overall in the GC just over a minute behind Vingegaard and emerged as the new leader in the best young rider classification. He climbed seven spots to number one and holds a 42-second advantage over Cian Uijtdebroeks of Movistar Team heading into the race’s two remaining stages.
Omrzel is also in the top 10 amongst the top youngsters in eighth, but is nearly 15 minutes behind Martinez.
“Yeah, it was a tough stage,” said Martinez yesterday. “I didn’t feel particularly great during the middle of the day, but my legs started to come back later on.
“We managed to get a bit of a gap at the start of the climb with Felix and Florian Lipowitz. Once Vingegaard bridged across, I tried to hold his wheel, but the pace was just too high.
“In the end, third place is not so bad,” he said.
Bahrain Victorious remained in eighth place overall in the teams’ classification.
The Volta Ciclista a Catalunya continues today with the sixth and penultimate stage, covering 158.92km. Tomorrow’s final leg will be over 95.1km, starting and finishing in Barcelona.
Meanwhile, in another race yesterday in Europe, Alec Segaert was the top finisher for Bahrain Victorious in the 68th E3 Saxo Classic one-day race in Belgium.
Segaert was classified 23rd after 208.5km of competition, nearly a half-minute behind winner Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Premier Tech.
Matej Mohoric followed amongst Bahrain Victorious’s team members in 56th and Attila Valter was 105th, while four riders did not finish, including Zak Erzen, Kamil Gradek, Daniel Skerl, and Oliver Stockwell.
&uuid=(email))