"Second place is great, but first would have been better" - Lenny Martinez sees maiden Tour victory snatched by Pogacar
Cycling
Lenny Martinez was one of the heroes of Friday's Tour de France stage 19. The young Frenchman finally cast aside conservativeness and joined the day's breakaway eyeing move up in the general classification and, who knows, perhaps a stage win.
The Bahrain - Victorious leader entered the stage as seventh overall, setting up an attack to enter the overall top-5 tightly protected by Lidl-Trek duo Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose. But when the leading group entered Alpe d'Huez with four-minute advantage, Martinez's chances improved massively.
"Honestly, it was a good opportunity to get ahead," Lenny Martinez said at the finish. "I'd been letting attacks go for several stages, I saw a big group go and I thought, 'Why not?' Then the group took me far ahead."
The good news for Martinez was that fifth overall Juan Ayuso continued on a downward trajectory and lost over six minutes at the finish line, dropping all the way to seventh overall. His teammate Mattias Skjelmose held on with the main group of favourites, but still lost 2:45 to Pogacar and remains sixth overall, nine seconds behind Martinez.
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For a long time, it seemed as though breakaway could emerge victorious from the endless crowds on Alpe d'Huez, despite Pogacar's early attack. The Frenchman held an epic battle with Richard Carapaz, but both were ultimately caught and passed by the flying Slovenian in the last kilometer.
"I was just aiming for a breakaway, not a stage win right away. Second place is great, but first would have been better," Martinez admitted.
When Pogacar passed the Frenchman, he hung on. Even through his first acceleration. But ultimately lost contact under flamme rouge as Richard Carapaz cracked first:
"Tadej was too strong. I saw Tadej go by and I got on his wheel. He rode incredibly hard, but I managed to hang on. Then Carapaz cracked before me, so I'm a bit disappointed because I could have stayed with him."
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- 18 broken bones. 78 crashes, among 30 rider per year is a lot. so for a rider over 15 seasons, they will break their bones 7-8 times and crash 38 times.abstractengineer04-11-2026
- i dont think he is ready ot win against the top 2 or the 2nd rung of evenepoel, del toro , Almeida. In the third week in the TDF he was very very defensive, no attacks. i think he was exhausted. right now he needs time not the brutal Giro or the intense TDF.abstractengineer04-11-2026
- Rota is an excellent rider to get in a break with because he always does his turnchapmanesque04-11-2026
- That 3000 extra that the Tour de France is built up in the flat stages
Rafionain-Glas04-11-2026 - maybe this is something else they can protest in the streets of France.mij04-11-2026
- his Roubaix win was amazing. not to take anything away from him - arguably one of MVDP's wins was at the expense of a WVA flat - but so many things need to line up to get one of these. He had a perfect race with fewer bike issues on an attritional course. And crazy strong as usual. Glad he got this done.mij04-11-2026
- Orts was a super smart signing with the new rules regarding cross and UCI pointsmij04-11-2026
- yeah... you're right...PogiSloFans04-11-2026
- Podcast sounds great. Two so called experts stating the f*cking obvious.wrsty04-11-2026
- A mindset that reminds me of Tim Declerq. I loved watching that guy just pound away the kilometers, hours at the front, holding an entire breakaway in check on his own. Bjerg seems like a similar guy. Curling, the team sport.RidesHills04-11-2026
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