Martinez still pleads innocence over sticky bottle at Tour: 'it's complicated when you're riding on a mountain pass'

Lenny Martinez’s first season at Bahrain Victorious was a rollercoaster. The French climber claimed brilliant WorldTour wins, but also had days when nothing clicked. During the Tour de France, he drew heavy criticism for a so‑called sticky bottle incident — a moment he says taught him a lot.

In 2025 Martinez won stages at Paris–Nice, the Tour de Romandie and the Critérium du Dauphiné. "I hadn’t really expected to win races of that calibre," the 22-year-old climber told RMC. "I’m constantly improving on the year before. I think I’ve taken another step, and if that continues every season, I think it bodes well for the future."

Martinez’s first week at the Tour was rough: he even finished dead last on the opening stage, three minutes behind the grupetto. Later, he fought back to take the polka‑dot jersey, and he scrapped for every single point. In stage 16, Tadej Pogačar swept past him in that competition, which meant the end of a possible fairytale. Grandfather Mariano Martínez won the KOM jersey in 1978, but the grandson couldn’t (yet) follow in his footsteps.

For Martinez, it was simply a matter of not being good enough. “I think if I’d simply been stronger, it would’ve been easier to get closer to the polka‑dot jersey. You’re not always at your best. Some days I scored a lot of points, other days I was off it. At this level, the competition is so fierce that if you’re not completely on it, you feel it straight away and pay the price.”

Martinez battled Thymen Arensman for the dots and pushed every limit — most notably in stage 18. On the first climb of the day, the Col du Glandon, he was in the break but quickly struggled. With a very obvious and infamous sticky bottle, he managed to latch back on and then cheekily beat Arensman to the sprint on the summit. It drew heavy criticism, and resultet in an eight‑point penalty in the mountain classification.

Martinez still maintains his innocence. “Looking back, I know I didn’t want to cheat. It’s also complicated when you’re riding on a mountain pass", he says. “The first stupid thing I did was take energy gels even though I didn’t need them. I took them thinking they’d add extra weight, even though the summit was still three kilometres away.”

He tries to shrug off the social‑media backlash. Even Thibaut Pinot got involved, responding with a vomiting emoji. “There’s a lack of clear thinking about the effort involved; people don’t get that side of it. lot of people watch the Tour and think hanging on is cheating, even if you get four seconds. Either way, I know I had no intention to cheat. I’m at peace with myself.”

That notorious moment is now behind him. Lessons learned should serve him well. The expectations for next year won’t be sky‑high just yet: his team will not make him surface too quickly. “The team has plans for me and they believe I can win big races in time. They know there’s time and they’re taking that time with me. It remains a long‑term project.”

He still hopes to ride the Tour de France next year — perhaps not as a GC rider yet, but in other races he does want to take steps toward the overall. “Next season I really want to improve my general classification. this year I wasn’t consistent enough, so I focused on stage wins.” Martinez was unwilling to clarify what the goals in the Tour the France will be. Will we see another polka-dots fight?