CYCLING – Team Bahrain Victorious superstar Lenny Martinez claimed an impressive podium yesterday as runner-up in the sixth and penultimate stage of the 105th Volta Ciclista a Catalunya in Spain.
Martinez delivered a strong ride as he made a strong finish on the summit in Queralt, backing up third place from stage five while holding on to the white jersey as the race’s best young rider.
He was classified 10 seconds behind stage winner Jonas Vingegaard of Team Visa-Lease a Bike with Florian Lipowitz of Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe taking third.
The 159-kilometre leg from Berga to Queralt featured a long circuit before the final climb, setting up a selective finale.
The decisive move came in the final kilometres on the concluding climb, where Vingegaard attacked.
Martinez was still there with the front group when he suffered a front-wheel puncture with just over two km to go.
Despite the issue, he managed to limit the damage and hold on to second place on the stage.
His Bahrain Victorious teammate Afonso Eulalio also claimed a place in the top 10 in ninth, while Santiago Buitrago just missed out on a leading classification in 13th.
“The race was really hard from the start,” said Martinez.
“Afonso did a super good job and we managed to open a gap, which was nice.”
“On the last climb, I had a flat tyre in the final two kilometres, so it was really difficult to follow. I don’t really know how I managed to hold on and finish like that. I’m happy with the result.”
Amongst Bahrain Victorious’s other team members, Jakob Omrzel was 47th, Rainer Kepplinger 115th, Matevz Govekar 132nd, and Nikias Arndt 138th.
With this result, Martinez moved up to second overall in the general classification, where he is a minute and 22 seconds behind overall leader Vingegaard heading into today’s final stage.
Buitrago followed in 11th for the team.
Martinez also retained the best young rider jersey, where he now enjoys a nearly four-minute lead from Cian Uijtdebroeks of Movistar Team.
Today’s seventh and final leg starts and finishes in Barcelona, covering a short 95.1km.
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