Lenny Martinez explains time loss on descent: "Had to use my bike computer to know when a corner was coming"

“We had a plan at the start this morning, and we executed it almost perfectly,” said the young climber with satisfaction. “I wanted to take all the mountain points up to the finish, but I couldn’t stay at the front on the Peyresourde. I still ended up taking second, as Thymen Arensman managed to go clear on his own.”

“I made sure not to go too deep in the red on the Tourmalet,” Martinez explained about his earlier solo move. “It was incredible to ride that climb alone, in the polka dot jersey, with so many fans cheering me on.” He reached the summit with a two-minute lead, but a very cautious descent reduced that gap to just 40 seconds.

Online, fans were quick to point out the Frenchman’s mediocre descent. “Sometimes the visibility was so poor we couldn’t even see the road. That’s why we had to rely on our bike computers to know when a corner was coming,” said the son of former Olympic mountain bike champion Miguel Martinez.

As the stage reached its final climbs, Lenny Martinez had to yield to Arensman and the rest. “I didn’t have much left in the legs. I would’ve loved to win this stage, but I can see that some of the more experienced riders are stronger at the end than at the beginning. So I decided to save my energy over the last thirty kilometers. I rode the first three climbs almost exactly as planned, so I think it was a good day.”

Martinez knows what’s ahead as the race heads into the Alps. “Now I need to keep scoring as many points as possible in the mountain stages and focus on the days where I really have to give it my all. I’ll fight every day, collect more points like today, and play the game on the big climbs that are still to come. I’m happy, but there are still so many days where I could lose the jersey. If I make it to Paris still wearing it, I’ll be over the moon!”

Team director Roman Kreuziger also weighed in. “Our goal was to get in the break and pick up points with Lenny—and of course, we had the stage win in mind as well. I think Lenny raced very smartly, and hats off to Arensman. He was truly impressive today; he would’ve been very hard to beat.”

“On the final climb, when we knew we weren’t in the running for points, we made the call to save Lenny’s legs for the coming days. He took a big step forward today, and since it’s going to be extremely difficult to hold onto the polka dot jersey all the way to Paris, he should enjoy every moment,” said the Czech director. Martinez now leads the mountains classification with 60 points, followed by Tadej Pogacar on 52 and Thymen Arensman on 48.

“He’s once again shown he can climb with the best,” Kreuziger added. “So today was important for us. He’ll get a rest day on Sunday, and we’ll turn our attention to a few other riders, I’m fairly confident a breakaway will make it. Let’s hope one or two of our guys have the legs.”