To succeed in beating double Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard, French prodigy Lenny Martinez developed a unique method.
Lenny Martinez is one of the main hopes of French cycling. At only 20 years old, the young Frenchman is starting his second professional season with the Groupama FDJ team, which launched him into the deep end. Despite his limited experience, the Cannes native already has good results under his belt. After a first part of the season of discovery last year, he finished 24th in the Tour of Spain, for his first participation in a Grand Tour. He even wore the red jersey of leader of the general classification for two days, finally won by the American Sepp Kuss.
For this 2024 season, Lenny Martinez will once again compete in the Vuelta, alongside David Gaudu. Before that, the Frenchman participated in the Classic Var in February, which he won ahead of Tobias Johannessen and Romain Bardet. He also lined up at the Strade Bianche, where he finished 8th, and at the Tour of Catalonia, finishing in seventh place and best young rider.
At the end of February, Lenny Martinez was in Galicia, Spain where he competed in the Gran Camino stage race. During this event he was able to compete against double winner of the Tour de France Jonas Vingegaard. By finishing second in the general classification, ahead of recognized runners like Egan Bernal, he left his mark. He was also able to realize the gap that still separates him from the best riders in the peloton, of which Vingegaard is certainly one. This experience gave him training ideas to follow the Dane, particularly on the Grand Tours in the future, as he explained to the newspaper L’Equipe. “I was wondering how we could train ourselves to follow Vingegaard’s attacks, for example by doing sets of ten minutes with five minutes really at the threshold, one minute strong, thirty seconds super strong like when he attacks, and then resume a strong rhythm over several minutes several times.”
If he should not be the only one trying to find ways to be able to compete with the rider of the Visma-Lease a Bike, Lenny Martinez seems to have the potential to become one of the best climbers of his generation. In any case, its potential attracts the desires and offers of competing teams from Groupama FDJ. Barhain-Victorius have already offered a contract to Martinez, who could leave the team managed by Marc Madiot at the end of the season. According to RMC Sport, the Frenchman has even already signed with the foreign team for a nice contract. La Gazzetta Dello Sport having mentioned in its columns at the beginning of March a salary of 2.5 million euros over 3 years, compared to current remuneration of around 200,000 euros per year.
