Martinez delivers a mighty punch
March 13 th 2025 - 16:31
Stage 5 of Paris-Nice 2025, filled with steep ascents all the way to a spectacular summit finish at La Côte-Saint-André, favoured a lightweight - Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), who surged to victory inside the last 100 metres after an animated finale. The young French climber got the better of Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and resisted his countryman Clément Champoussin (XDS-Astana) to take his most prestigious victory to date, on slopes that saw Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) struggle. The Dane suffered a crash early in the stage, rapidly resumed action but with an injured hand, and eventually finished 16th, with a gap of 26’’. The yellow and white jersey thus returns to Jorgenson… with Vingegaard in 2nd place of the overall standings (+22’’). Martinez moves up to 5th (+55’’).
The 143 riders who finished stage 4 at La Loge des Gardes are all present to resume racing in Saint-Just-en-Chevalet. Many of them eye the possibility of a winning breakaway, and a group of 11 riders try their luck from the first (uphill) kilometre... without success.
A blistering first 2 hours
Attack and counter-attack movements follow one after the other and meet the same fate, with riders already spotted in the previous days such as Joshua Tarling, Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X), as well as new attackers like Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) and Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost).
After two hours of battle, Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers) and Thibaud Gruel (Groupama-FDJ) get the clear for the break of the day. They set off at km 73, press on as a duo and eventually benefit from the clemency of the peloton after more than 90 kilometres, covered at an average of 48.4 km/h.
Vingegaard hits the deck, Foss gets away
Their lead hits a maximum of 3’15’’ (km 114) before Julian Alaphilippe’s Tudor Pro Cycling react. Meanwhile, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) hits the deck on the climb of Côte de Trèves. The Danish leader of the race rapidly gets back up and returns to the bunch.
The pace and the tension increase as the riders face the Côte du Château Jaune and the Côte de Sibuze, the first of five “walls” in the last 50 kilometres. Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers) uses these launchpads to join the lead duo and build a margin of 55’’ as he goes solo on the Côte de Chavagneux, with 30 kilometres to go.
Vingegaard struggles, Martinez flies
Trailing by 1’06’’ on GC, Foss takes the lead of the virtual standings as he pushes his advantage to 1’10’’ into the last 20 kilometres. But the peloton set a brutal pace on the penultimate climb of the day, Côte d’Arzay (16.5 km to go). The Norwegian attacker is eventually caught 4 km away from the line.
As Vingegaard struggles on the steeper slopes of the final climb, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) sets his own pace at the front and even opens a small gap with 300 metres to go. But Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana) bridges the gap with his teammate Clément Champoussin and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious)… The latter dances on his pedals in the last 100 metres to claim victory.
