Lenny Martinez confirmed his excellent start to the season by winning the Laigueglia Trophy in Italy alone on Wednesday, a success which cements his status as a great hope in French cycling. At only 20 years old, the pocket climber from the Groupama-FDJ team has already achieved his third professional success, the second this season after the Classic Var in mid-February. Since his arrival in the World Tour squad of Marc Madiot’s team at the start of 2023, the son of Miguel Martinez, Olympic mountain bike champion in 2000, has confirmed the promises born from his junior years.
Coming from a family of great cyclists – Mariano, his naturalized Spanish grandfather, was best climber of the 1978 Tour – Lenny Martinez stood out in 2022 while racing for the Groupama “Conti” team -FDJ in the third division, finishing third in the “Baby Giro” and becoming the first French winner of the Tour du Val d’Aosta since Thibaut Pinot in 2009.
Upstairs, he won the Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge last year and took a fine 18th place on the Dauphiné before becoming the youngest rider in history to wear the leader’s red jersey on the Tour. from Spain. After a studious winter, he is attacking 2024 on very solid foundations. Winner of the Classic Var at the summit of Mont-Faron on February 16, he then took second place in the Spanish Gran Camino stage race, behind the Dane Jonas Vingegaard, double winner of the Tour de France, whom he was the only one able to keep up on the climbs.
On Wednesday, he made another very strong impression by winning the 61st edition of the Laigueglia Trophy alone, which opens the road season in Italy before the Strade Bianche on Saturday, Tirreno-Adriatico next week and Milan-Sanremo on March 16. Very active, the Varois placed a final acceleration in the fourth and final ascent of Colla Micheri, less than ten kilometers from the finish, only followed by the Swiss Jan Christen.
He then opened up a gap of around ten seconds on the descent. Rambling along the Ligurian coast, he consolidated his lead during the last five kilometers run in time trial mode, with astonishing efficiency for his mosquito size (1.68 m, 52 kg). “It’s the best feeling of victory, when you do a time all by yourself and there’s a guy behind and he doesn’t have to come in and you win by yourself,” he said. -he enjoyed the finish, arriving 29 seconds ahead of two strong men, the Italian Andrea Vendrame and the Spaniard Juan Ayuso.
“I attacked right at the top and came down hard. At the bottom, I had maybe ten seconds. Fortunately there was the rising false-flat bump where I put everything in and used my climbing skills to succeed in getting the victory,” added Martinez, third Frenchman to register his name on the list of winners of this semi-classic. Italian after Pascal Chanteur in 1998 and Nans Peters last year.
