Martinez denied at the last by insatiable Pogacar: 'I wasn't going to ask him to let me win'

The Frenchman was part of the day’s early break on a stage that took in three ascents of the Col de la Croix, and he proved the strongest when the move broke up on the final haul to the line.

Pogačar, however, was never likely to stand on ceremony here, and he scorched clear of his GC rivals with 8km to go. He still had more than a minute to make up on Martinez at that point, but the Bahrain Victorious rider put up fierce resistance, leading into the final kilometre before Pogačar blasted past on the last steep portion of the course. 

Martinez continued to battle as the road levelled out, coming home in second place, eight seconds down on Pogačar, who sealed overall victory with his third stage win of the week.

“There’s some disappointment,” Martinez told CyclingPro.net afterwards. “I think that if I’d had maybe 10 or 15 seconds more, I would have made it to the flat part, and it might have worked out, but I was in the breakaway all day. I gave it a go. I thought I might win, but he was a little stronger, so that’s just how it goes.”

Martinez has been quietly impressive this season, placing fifth at Paris-Nice, second at the Volta a Catalunya and third at the Tour de Romandie. He made a slow start to this Tour de Suisse, but he finished on a high note, and his strong showing in the final stage lifted him to seventh place overall.

“I’m glad to have reassured myself,” Martinez said. “My legs feel great. Day by day, they’ve been getting better. I got off to a really bad start at this Tour de Suisse, so I can see that things are better now, my level has come back up a bit.”

In another era, the overall winner might have conceded stage victory to Martinez, but such niceties don’t tend to exist in 2020s cycling. On the final day of Paris-Nice, Jonas Vingegaard contested stage victory with Martinez even if the Frenchman emerged victorious. Similarly, Pogačar showed no mercy here in the final kilometre and he claimed the win, and Martinez had no complaints.

“Tadej wins a lot of races, and that’s exactly what he wanted to do again today,” Martinez said. “It’s complicated but that’s how it is. That’s cycling. I wasn’t going to ask him to let me beat him.”

Despite missing out on the stage honours, Martinez declared himself satisfied with his handling of the final climb, where he forced Pogačar to dig deep to catch him.

“I could see he was gaining time little by little, not all at once, so that shows the level was there,” Martinez said. “I gave it my all, so I couldn’t have done any better.”