Martinez wins Queen’s stage at Tour de Romandie

At the Tour de Romandie, Lenny Martinez was looking for a stage win to finish a winning drought for Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS that had been ongoing since mid-March. Having already finished stage 3 in 2nd place, Martinez climbed to the stage win in Saturday’s Queen’s stage. The Frenchman now heads into the conclusive individual time trial held in Geneva as the GC leader by a slim margin.

As one of only two top-tier stage races held in Switzerland, the Tour de Romandie had been battered by wet and cold weather in many of its recent editions. But this year’s race has seen mostly sunny conditions. With a technical prologue to kick things off, a conclusive individual time trial and two mountain top finishes and hilly stages each, the one-week stage race offers up opportunities for various types of riders. Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS brought young Frenchman Lenny Martinez as its GC captain. He could rely on the support of road captain Jack Haig, plus Finlay Pickering and Max van der Meulen for the climbs, and of Kamil Gradek, Mathijs Paasschens and Nicolo Buratti as soon as the pace on the flat needed to go up.

In the opening prologue, Lenny Martinez gave a fine example of his good form as the light-weight climber conceded just 8 seconds to the day's winner and just a few seconds to other GC contenders. Throughout the next two days, Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS could be seen riding both actively and attentively in a bid to avoid any unnecessary time losses for Lenny Martinez. Stage 3 served up a first mountain top finish, and the riders of the team worked hard to bring back the day's early attackers. Assisted by both Finlay Pickering and Jack Haig, Lenny Martinez held on to a favourable position on the punchy climb to the finish. Like all other riders in the elite group up front, the young Frenchman could not react to Jay Vine's acceleration that came with one kilometre to go, but he sprinted to 2nd place and snatched some time bonuses.

Measuring just 118.2 kilometres, stage 4 may not have been all that long, but it packed the three hardest climbs of the race. Covering a distance of more than 20 kilometres and leading up to 2019 meters above sea level, the final climb from Sion to Thyon 2000 was particularly demanding. Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS showed another active race, got its GC captain into the final climb in a favourable position and upped the pace. A real battle of attrition ensued, and the group of race leaders shrank to finally only contain four riders, being Lenny Martinez, Joao Almeida, Jay Vine and Lorenzo Fortunato as the winners of the two previous stages. When Vine ran out of steam, Almeida attacked with 4 kilometres to go in what was a bid to smash the leading group of four, but Lenny Martinez was well prepared for this move.

On the remaining, steep kilometres to the finish line, the young Frenchman joined forces with Almeida and had to neutralise a number of attacks. In the end, the decision came down to a two-staged sprint: Both Almeida and Martinez accelerated with 200 meters to go, with the Frenchman of Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS making it into the next left-hand corner first. From there, the win was his. "Almeida's sprint was pretty explosive, and he got pretty close in the end. The team has been working super hard for me today, so I am all the more happy to get this win", Lenny Martinez said in the winner's interview. With this victory, Martinez also took over the overall lead on GC. But the margins are still very slim, and a lot can still happen in the conclusive time trial held in Geneva.

RESULTS:
78TH TOUR DE ROMANDIE, STAGE 4: SION - THYON 2000, 118.2KM
1. Lenny Martinez, FRA/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, in 3:43.46 hours
2. Joao Almeida, POR, st
3. Lorenzo Fortunato, ITA, + 0.29

STAGE 3: COSSONAY - COSSONAY, 183.1KM
1. Jay Vine, AUS, in 4:03.35 hours
2. Lenny Martinez, FRA/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, + 0.02
3. Joao Almeida, POR, st

OVERALL STANDINGS BEFORE THE CONCLUSIVE ITT:
1. Lenny Martinez, FRA/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, in 16:29.56 hours
2. Lorenzo Fortunato, ITA, + 0.02
3. Joao Almeida, POR, + 0.03