Not even a mid-race crash could stop French climber Lenny Martínez (Groupama-FDJ) from claiming his fifth victory of the season in the Mercan’Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes.
In a repeat of their duel in the Tour de Doubs this April, the 20-year-old dropped breakaway companion Clément Berthet (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) with a kilometre to go.
Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto-Dstny) was third on the very mountainous 168.2-kilometre Classic.
But the day belonged to Berthet and Martínez after they attacked on the final ascent, the Col de la Couillole, where Martinez had crashed early on.
In a thrilling duel, Berthet went for it near the summit, Martínez joined him and went clear over the top, only for Berthet to regain contact once more, then Martinez to drop him at the finish.
In a breathless series of attacks and counter-moves, the next significant challenge came from Clément Berthet (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), some three kilometres from the summit, as he hunted for a first career win.
Almost at the top, though, Martínez was able to power across and then almost immediately storm clear.
A 25-second advantage at the top, though, was not sufficient as Berthet regained contact on the initial part of the descent and Israel-Premier Tech, led by Bennett, sought in vain to pull a four-man chase group back into control.
As far as halfway up the final unclassified 6% climb to the finish, Martinez and Berthet worked well together. But as soon as the kilometre-to-go flag had been passed, Martinez accelerated hard, and in just a few minutes, his fourth place in the same race in 2023 became first place in 2024.
“It was a very tough race,” said Martinez afterwards, “I fell quite hard when somebody behind me touched a wheel, and as a result, I went down, too.
“Clément and I got away in the finale and it worked out quite well, we collaborated. It was much better that way because Israel-Premier Tech had two riders behind, and the gaps were tight. But we made it.”.
On the first three major ascents, the 20.4 kilometre Col de Baisse de Cabanette-Peira Cava, a move by Total Energies racer and former French TT champion Pierre Latour brought him across to the strongest rider of a break of five, Valentin Retailleau (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale). Recently the winner of a stage of Boucles de la Mayenne, Retailleau and his compatriot Latour dived over the summit with a steadily increasing margin.
Retailleau then went solo, quickly pushing his lone advantage to two minutes. But just before the summit of the Col Saint Martin-La Comiane, the second big climb of the day, he was caught by a shrinking peloton driven by Groupama-FDJ.
On the long drop to the most difficult ascent of them all, the Col de la Couillole - set to be used in the upcoming Tour de France as its last mountain top finish on stage 20 - the reduced peloton remained more or less stable. However, as soon as they hit the lower slopes of the 15.9-kilometre ascent, Groupama-FDJ opened up the throttle again, rapidly further shredding the field thanks to former Vuelta an España leader Rudy Molard.
Less than a third of the way up and despite a crash early on the climb, Martínez launched an attack that tested the group. But the first real duel came between Martínez teammate David Gaudu and Israel-Premier Tech’s George Bennett. Bennett finally managed to drop the Frenchman for a brief lone break, only for Martinez to drag a tiny group of chasers back up.
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