CYCLING – Team Bahrain Victorious’ star cyclist Lenny Martinez produced a strong performance yesterday to claim a top 10 finish in the sixth stage of the 113th Tour de France, while also taking maximum points in the King of the Mountain (KOM) segment at the iconic Col d’Aspin in the French Pyrenees.
Martinez raced to ninth overall in the gruelling 186.2-kilometre leg, which featured 4,149 vertical metres.
He was classified three minutes and two seconds behind stage winner Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates-XRG, who completed the distance in four hours 32 minutes and seven seconds.
Martinez’s day also included a photo finish where he beat Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quick-Step by a whisker to score the maximum 10 points in the category one climb.
Paret-Peintre came away with eight points.
Martinez thus improved to 16 points in the race’s KOM standings, where he stayed in third place. Pogacar leads with 28 points, followed by Jonas Vingegaard of Team Visma-Lease a Bike with 19.
Martinez also rose four spots to eighth overall on the race’s general classification, which is also currently led by Pogacar.
The Bahrain Victorious ace also improved two positions to fourth in the best young rider rankings, where Pogacar’s teammate Isaac Del Toro is in first.
Amongst Bahrain Victorious’ other riders in yesterday’s stage, Antonio Tiberi finished 33rd, Damiano Caruso was 46th, Vlad Van Mechelen came 99th, Robert Stannard finished 100th, and Matej Mohoric was 102nd.
This year’s Tour de France, which covers a total of 3,319km and 54,303m of elevation, continues today with the seventh stage, covering 175.1km and starting from Hagetmau before ending in Bordeaux.
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