Martinez’s coach speaks out strongly about young rider: "If you're a gardener, you don't complain about the weather either"

Ellingworth joined the Bahraini squad midway through 2024 with a clear mission: to support the team’s young GC leaders. In an interview with Velo, he explains his role in more detail, focusing primarily on Lenny Martinez. “It’s all about understanding who he is and how he thinks. I really enjoy that, to be honest. I’m working with some great young guys, physios, nutritionists and people with ambition. My role is to guide the performance group around Lenny.”

And Ellingworth knows a thing or two about shaping top-level riders. Between 2010 and 2019, he helped deliver seven Tour de France wins with Team Sky and played a key role in the early career of Mark Cavendish. Those were different times, but Ellingworth is still all in. “It’s 50 days on the road during the year, 50 days at home, 100 days total. We’ve built a small project team around him. I’m not involved in the day-to-day stuff, but I oversee his development.”

Martinez joined Bahrain Victorious this year after two seasons with the main squad at Groupama FDJ. But Ellingworth quickly saw that the young Frenchman had not received the guidance he needed. “It’s across the board. He’s got really good power, but I don’t think Groupama FDJ had any sort of performance plan in place. He wasn’t coming into races with a clear goal like, 'What does it take to win?'”

“He’s never really done performance planning,” Ellingworth continued. “At least not at the level we would expect, where you dive into the details of what it takes to win or to perform.” Still, he believes Martinez is more than willing to engage. “I think he actually finds it interesting. He’ll say things like, 'I never thought about that,' and then I’m just thinking, 'Oh my god!'”

Despite that, Ellingworth clearly sees the potential. “He’s got a strong foundation. You can give him a heavy workload and he bounces back. He’s got that thing all top athletes have. He’s not fragile.” But one thing has already become clear to the coach. The biggest area for improvement lies in the mental side of the sport.

France’s rising star looked brilliant at Paris–Nice, taking a stunning victory in stage five. It was a strong move in the general classification, but just a day later, he completely faded. “He switched off,” Ellingworth recalled. “You didn’t see it on TV, but two or three guys were with him and telling him, ‘Come on Lenny, you have to move!’ And he just said, ‘I’m done. I’m cold.’”

Those words did not sit well with his coach. “Okay, but every bastard is cold,” said the Brit bluntly. “If Lenny had been in a good position, I don’t think that would have happened. But he switched off and dropped to the back. I was shocked by him in Paris–Nice, and he was also awful in the first 100 kilometers of La Flèche Wallonne. He was groaning like mad, but he did bounce back later on.”

Martinez or no Martinez, Ellingworth is crystal clear with his riders when it comes to dealing with the weather. “I stood in front of the group and said, ‘Guys, this is outdoor work. If you don’t like working outside, go get a job indoors.’” He wrapped it up with a fitting metaphor. “If you’re a gardener, you don’t complain about the weather. They choose to do this. Nobody is forcing them.”