Ridiculed Lenny Martinez now looks ready for Tour de France mission: "I’ll try again to win a stage"
CyclingTuesday, 08 July 2025 at 22:07
Lenny Martinez seems to be slowly but surely regaining his old legs. The 21-year-old Frenchman from Bahrain Victorious came to the Tour de France with big ambitions for stage wins and the mountains classification, but on day 1 he was laughed at when he finished dead last, over nine minutes down, in an echelon stage. After a few tough days, Martinez suddenly found himself in the early breakaway on day 4, and he held out the longest. That bodes well for the rest of the Tour.
Martinez rode the Tour de France last year already, but back then he did so after an overloaded early season, leaving him exhausted and finishing 124th in the general classification. After switching from Groupama-FDJ to Bahrain Victorious, his preparation this year was better, proven by big stage wins in Paris-Nice, the Tour de Romandie, and the Critérium du Dauphiné.
The young climber never targeted a high GC this season, which already indicated he came to the Tour without those ambitions. Santiago Buitrago is the team’s card for a top five, while Martinez is hunting for stage success. "I also know that if I go for a stage win, it will probably be in the last two weeks. By that time, I might also be able to collect some points for the mountains classification," he said.
Read more below the photo.
Martinez shows himself in lively breakaway attempt
His breakaway attempt on day four was quite surprising, although after finishing last on day 1 he had already shown improvement with 91st place on day 2 and 77th on day 3. No clear cause was given, but within the Tour peloton there were whispers of illness, which meant Martinez was struggling to keep up. On Tuesday he finished 106th, fitting that trend, but of course the picture was completely different.
From kilometer 0, Martinez attacked and eventually found himself in a breakaway group of four. From there he missed out on a mountain sprint for 1 point against Kasper Asgreen, but with a later solo move he still managed to pick up 2 points before being caught. "The main goal was the stage win, but the peloton didn’t allow it. I did pick up some mountain points and my legs feel good," he said afterwards.
With a long time trial on Wednesday, Martinez can in principle take a rest day before stages 6 and 7, which feature a punchy finish and the Mûr de Bretagne on Friday, both attractive finishes for him. ‘Maybe I’ll try again to win a stage. This was the first time I stood on the podium, so I’m happy,’ concluded the winner of the day’s combativity award.
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Latest Comments
- Maybe I was a bit disrespectful to Heiden. What he did was unique and exceptional but he wasn't the only one who combined those distances, nowadays it is just not possible and nobody competes in both distances. The same is true for cycling with for example the combination of Roubaix and de Tour de France. In Merckx era there were more riders who managed a top10 in both races than currently.Joostmehrtens19-06-2025
- Two old men shouting at pigeons in the park…JonS16-06-2025
- Out of touch old men hankering after their youth through rose tinted spectacles, their arrogance almost outshines their irrelevance. Turn the volume down, this modern stuff just isn't music like we used to sing...johnny20whales16-06-2025
- In talking speed skating, the days when Heiden did that, nobody else did that. And Eddy couldn't do the equivalent of the bike. His 200 on the velodrome was good, but not world competitive for gold. Heiden was in his own world on the ice, moreso than Eddy if we pretend Eric didn't have a very short career on the ice.Veganpotter16-06-2025
- They wouldn't have dropped HIM so easily.... the GOAT. They would have dropped the rest from that era easily thoughVeganpotter16-06-2025
- Merckx was able to win in a break away on a flat (sprinters) stage, what do you mean they did not drop that easily in his time. Vlaeminck won in the mountains and the classics, but now you need to specialise. The days that a Eric Heiden could win the sprint and the 10k and everything in between are long gone and cycljng is no differentJoostmehrtens16-06-2025
- Carsapaz and Del torro were not capable of chasing Yates. They paused and looked at each other because they didn't have it in them. Yates had kept his powder dry waiting for this stage and demolished both of them. They lost Yates won. Your second guessing is utter nonsense., if either felt they could close Yates down they would have , just like they did countless times for other riders. They blew up , Yates excelled.Uphillbilly05-06-2025
- Carapaz is full of it. He is absolutely irrelevant after a rant at del Toro. Isaac had no obligations to do anything for Carapaz. It should remind one of the saying that goes lke this: "If I jump off the bridge, are you going to jump too?" If Caapaz wanted to win the Giro he should have chased Yates with or without Isaac. And if del Toro could follow, then so be it. But it was Carapaz's choice to slow down and stare at Isaac. Isaac was on the radio at times and you can bet he was being told by the Team car to do just what he was doing. Did I like that he didn't set out after Yates himself, NO. But the 21 year old was probably being instructed to do what he did, otherwise you can bet we would have heard from UAE mgmt. that Isaac chose to ignore their orders. But what we did hear was they were happy with his result. Which I think was a terrible betrayal of their young rider, who I think was capable of more than that penultimate stage showed. The Giro finished on a truly sour note as far as I'm concerned, because it was not "raced" The most crucial stage of the whole 21 stage race was simply given away, playing games with the unwritten rules of bicycle racing. "Leaders jerseys responsibility" and all that nonsense. Just RACE! It was disgraceful.
reemmo004-06-2025 - Well this aged like fine milkGlyn31-05-2025
- This is just mean-spirited.agnessk29-05-2025