Lenny Martinez reflects on Tour de Romandie podium: "I couldn't have hoped for better"

Lenny Martinez may have missed out on the overall victory at the 2025 Tour de Romandie, but the young French climber still walks away with his first WorldTour stage race podium, and plenty of pride.

After a stunning ride on Saturday’s Queen Stage, where he out-sprinted João Almeida to take the stage win and the yellow jersey, Martinez saw his lead slip away in Sunday’s decisive 17km time trial. The UAE Team Emirates – XRG rider delivered a powerful ride to place second on the day, just 12 seconds behind Remco Evenepoel, and claim the overall title. Martinez finished 13th on the stage, 30 seconds back, and had to settle for second in the general classification.

Speaking to Cyclism’Actu after the stage, Martinez was philosophical about the result.

"I'm doing a good time. I was aiming for a podium overall, even if a top 5 would still have been a good week for me. I knew it would be complicated today on a course that wasn't super hard. But I'm not disappointed at all, when I see that I'm 30 seconds behind Joao Almeida. I couldn't push any faster. If it had been for 5 seconds, I might have been disappointed, but there... He was stronger, there's no problem. It's a very good week, I couldn't have hoped for better. It's my first podium in a WorldTour stage race, with a stage win and even a 2nd place the day before, it's very good."

The young Bahrain – Victorious rider gained invaluable experience throughout the week and praised the team around him for their growing cohesion and support.

"I learned a lot this week, it was a real-life test. I had days when I wasn't feeling well, others when I was doing well... and that's it, you can't give up. Over the course of a week, the sensations fluctuate a lot, it's never constant. I knew how to have good legs on the decisive stages, so I'm pretty happy. I'm starting to find my feet with the Bahrain Victorious, I have a very good team around me. We're starting to work well together. They're seeing more and more how to position me, they're adapting a lot to me and I thank them."

Martinez now plans to take a short break before resuming his build-up to the summer's biggest races.

"My plan? It's now 3 days off without cycling, vacation in Andorra, and then after that, go back to Teide, and Dauphiné then Tour de France."