'I thought about stopping' - Dani Martínez battles rib pain after teammate crash to secure second at Paris-Nice

With little over 50km remaining in the stage, and well on his way to comfortably securing 2nd place, Martínez hit the deck after touching wheels with his teammate Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and throwing him off the road.

“The pace was very high on the second climb, and I tried to move up towards the front when I went down and hurt my ribs and my arm,” explained the Colombian.

Martínez suggested that the incident was his own fault, stating, “I made a mistake, I went down, and it was quite a hard crash.”

Despite the setback and the visible pain in his ribs and arm, the Colombian remounted, with his podium position at stake and battled valiantly to finish 20th on the stage, in a group 51 seconds behind stage winner Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) and GC winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike).

It was no easy feat for Martínez, who had considered throwing in the towel, such was the pain, but with the support of his team, he was able to see the job through.

“For a moment I thought about stopping, but thanks to the support of my teammates I was able to continue and make it to the finish,” said Martínez.

In terms of what this meant for the final GC picture, Vingegaard wrapped up the GC by a margin of 4:23 over Martínez, with Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) in 3rd at 6:07. 

It’s the second time in the 29-year-old rider’s career that he has finished on the podium in the Race to the Sun, after he was 3rd in 2022 while racing for the Ineos Grenadiers behind now-teammate Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and the recently retired Simon Yates.

Ultimately, it concluded a strong week for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, who enjoyed a podium at both Paris-Nice with Martínez, and also 3rd place at Tirreno-Adriatico with Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).

“It was a really strong week for the whole team, everyone did a great job,” said Martínez.

Red Bull's Chief of Sports, Zak Dempster, also reflected positively on the action, but signalled the team’s intent to continue progressing. 

“There’s plenty we can be proud of, but at the same time our ambitions are clear, we know there’s more to come, and we’ll keep pushing for it in the races ahead,” said Dempster. 

Martínez is next set to be in action at the Volta a Catalunya, which kicks off on March 23, with the German team featuring Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) alongside the Colombian.