At the end of last year’s Tour de France, much was made of the fact that Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) had finally reached an age where he could no longer fight for the youth classification, but at the Volta a Catalunya that became obvious for the first time this season.
After Pogačar's victory on stage 2 at Vallter, he emerged on the winner's podium to don the jersey of mountains leader, points leader and, of course, the overall leader. The one jersey missing from Pogačar’s spring Catalan collection was the race's white one with orange stripes denoting the best young rider.
Instead, that honour went to Groupama-FDJ's Lenny Martínez, the 20-year-old Frenchman who already became the Vuelta a España’s youngest-ever GC leader last September. At his return to racing south of the Pyrenees again in Catalunya, he finished fifth at Vallter.
Martinez’s latest achievement comes in a year where he keeps popping up in the top half of the results pages, and more. He has already taken wins at Classic Var and Trofeo Laigueglia as well as second in O Gran Camiño on the final summit finish behind Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike). Perhaps most impressively of all for a rider weighing a scant 52 kilos and often classified as a pure climber, he was eighth in Strade Bianche.
Now the best young rider in Catalunya and in the fight for the overall, Martinez told reporters afterwards, “At the start of the stage I didn’t feel so great as all that, but at the end of the stage it went really well on the climb".
“There was a little split already and then I got back in it, and I tried to attack several times but the level was really high," he said about Pogačar attacking about 7km from the summit.
“Then Mikel Landa was strong and went for it at the end," he added about Landa taking second on the stage and moving into second overall. “I tried to stay with him but I couldn’t. So I just hung on in there, and stuck in all the way to the finish.”
Visibly shivering constantly as he spoke to reporters, Martínez said that in terms of temperatures, at least, it had been one of his toughest days on the bike.
“At the summit I have never felt so cold, I must have changed my gears 100 times with my hands on purpose to try and get some feeling back into them but I couldn’t it was so cold. It was a really hard situation.”
Given such stunning performances at such a young age no matter the temperature (and in Galicia's O Gran Camiño Martinez also impressed in even wetter, and sometimes colder, weather), there has been much talk already about Martínez being out of contract next year. Even before his latest show of climbing strength, Martinez has, unsurprisingly, been receiving some hefty offers for his services for next year.
Bahrain Victorious are amongst those reportedly keen to sign him, but as Martínez told L’Equipe on Tuesday, he is not thinking about next year yet, and for now he takes such interest as a compliment, but nothing more.
“The problem is that lots of people have got very excited about these rumours but we’re still barely in March,” he said. “I don’t want to think about that now, I’ve got a season to do. Contract time is in August.
“It’s normal that people get interested in me, including other teams. When you win races, that’s what happens in cycling. I take it more as a positive thing than a negative.”
