'Winning races is the ultimate goal' - Lenny Martinez refuses the GC box

Asked by L’Équipe about his first year with the team, Martinez made it sound straightforward. “It was really good. I feel good, a bit like at home. The staff supports me, they are around me. We have a real project with the team. I find that super motivating.” 

In 2025, the Frenchman took a clear step forward, picking off WorldTour stage wins across the spring and early summer before heading into the Tour de France. There, he leaned into aggressive racing, repeatedly getting up the road and spending long days in the breakaway while remaining part of the fight around the polka dot jersey.

The comfort he got from his new environment, he suggests, helped unlock a jump he did not fully see coming. “Every year, I say this, but every year, I think I cannot believe what I did. I wanted to win in the WorldTour and now I have won three times at this level. Winning a stage of Paris-Nice and the Dauphiné in my life, that is already… When I was younger, I watched the riders who managed it, now it is me. I think I have passed a big step and there are still others to pass.”

The season was not without friction though. The big wins were often followed by harder days, including during the opening week of the Tour de France. Martinez is aware of the criticism that follows him, but he does not buy into it. 

“Honestly, sometimes everyone gets worked up about the fact that I am not super consistent. But I have won races that some guys never win. Sometimes I tell myself that if I were consistent, that would mean I would win almost every stage. But you need luck, strength, to be in the right breakaway, for all the planets to align. It is so hard now to win. I feel like there is always something to say. I am very happy with what I did. I see more positive than negative.”

Questions about tension with his directeur sportif Roman Kreuziger are brushed aside. “No. From the outside, it looks like that. The first time, I also had the impression that he was a bit cold. Now I know that deep down, he is really nice. I do not know why, his face… He told me: ‘Sometimes I have a bit of a shitty face, but inside, I am super happy’ (laughs).”

Where Martinez becomes most analytical is when he talks about the inconsistency itself. “Honestly, it is just physical because this year, I realised that I could be super motivated, super happy in the bus and, in the first climb, feel completely useless.” 

At WorldTour level, the margin is brutal he says. “It just takes missing 15 watts and in a climb, instead of being a bit on the limit but in control, you are completely on the limit and you explode.”

Looking ahead, his 2026 programme is expected to closely mirror 2025, with the Tour de France again marked as the central point of the season. That does not mean a full commitment to riding conservatively for general classification. 

Martinez remains clear about what drives him. “It could be that I am never consistent but that would not bother me, honestly, if I keep winning races like that. Winning races is the ultimate goal.” And he makes no apology for it. “I know that I give much more emotion to people I know by winning races than by riding for general classifications.”