CYCLING – Team Bahrain Victorious star Lenny Martinez produced another outstanding performance in the high mountains yesterday to finish an impressive second on stage 19 of this year’s Tour de France atop the legendary Alpe d’Huez, and thus moving up two places in the general classification (GC) to fifth overall.
The Frenchman joined the day’s early breakaway, which formed as the battle for both the Maillot Vert (for points) and the King of the Mountains classification unfolded.
Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek accelerated to collect maximum points at the intermediate sprint, while current polka dot jersey wearer for best climber Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quick-Step and Richard Carapaz of EF Education-EasyPost fought for valuable mountain points before the break established a significant advantage.
Bahrain Victorious placed two riders in the move, with Martinez joined by Italian teammate Antonio Tiberi as the break built an advantage of around four minutes over the yellow jersey group.
As the race reached the foot of Alpe d’Huez, the leaders still held an advantage of approximately three minutes and 15 seconds.
As the climb unfolded, Martinez emerged as one of the strongest riders in the breakaway. Alongside Carapaz and Sepp Kuss of Team Visma-Lease a Bike, he proved to be one of the final survivors from the day’s escape, but behind them the yellow jersey group was rapidly closing the gap.
Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates-XRG launched his acceleration from the lower slopes, bridging across to the leading trio and erasing the breakaway’s advantage.
Carapaz attempted to resist the race leader’s acceleration, while Martinez immediately latched onto Pogacar’s wheel and matched the initial surge.
The Bahrain Victorious rider fought bravely alongside the Slovenian, but one final attack from Pogacar in the closing kilometres proved decisive as the yellow jersey-holder rode clear to victory.
Martinez dug deep over the final ramps to outsprint Carapaz for second place on the stage, capping another exceptional climbing performance.
His result saw him move up two places in the GC to fifth overall, climbing above Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek by just nine seconds heading into the final mountain stage.
“It wasn’t in the plan for me to go in the breakaway; I just saw a big group going clear and thought it was better to be at the front than back in the bunch,” said Martinez.
“Then I started thinking about how Tadej beat me in Switzerland, and today I wanted to get my revenge. But I should have known how strong he was.
“We had a four-minute advantage at the bottom of the climb, which is a lot, and we were climbing really fast, but in the end he was simply too strong.
“It’s a bit disappointing to miss out on the stage win, but I’m sure my day will come.
“I was only thinking about the GC, but then on the final climb more about the stage victory. Anyway, it was nice to have a gap.
“Tomorrow is another climbing day to Alpe d’Huez. It was a hard stage today, but finishing second is still a good result for the team. Against Tadej, there wasn’t much more we could do.”
Bahrain Victorious sports director Roman Kreuziger commented: “I wasn’t surprised to see Lenny in the breakaway because it was one of the scenarios we discussed on the rest day.
What did surprise me was seeing other teams commit to chasing the break.
They were quite a long way behind, but perhaps they were concerned about Carapaz moving up in the classifications.
“At this stage of the Tour, every jersey and every position matters, so everyone is playing their own game.
“I think Lenny is capable of climbing even faster on his own, but with the riders around, you have to be tactical. In the end, to be beaten only by Tadej Pogacar is nothing to be disappointed about – you’re not the first rider to lose to him, you’ve beaten everyone else.”
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