Lenny Martinez 🇫🇷

Groupama - FDJ has a stacked youngster squad. If you've been hoping for a French renaissance pay attention to this team. Between Grégoire and Martinez we're glued to them with eyes wide open.

Martinez can climb - showing off his stuff multiple times this year, most notably at the classic Mont Ventoux challenge where he beat Mike Woods and Simon Carr.

Martinez seemed a little weak getting his legs under him at the Critérium du Dauphiné and Tour de Romandie prior to the Mont Ventoux challenge, but maybe he's just peaking at the right time. Mainly for La Vuelta which he's slated to appear at for the 2023 edition.

Strengths

Anything climbing that involves a long and steep test. Martinez's light frame magnifies his performance in these regards. For example Stage 5 of Volta Catalunya where he placed sixth ahead of Mikel Landa and just behind some big names like Urán and Soler.

We expect him to continue to develop in this regard too, and if he can iron out his time trial, which is currently average but not great, he could become a strong general classification contender down the road. The problem is that he's just a tad too light - at only 52kg he's unlikely to be able to put down the requisite power naturally compared to other key GC contenders.

When to bet

Martinez is currently inconsistent on anything other than pure steep and long gradients. Even then it's hit or miss. You're welcome to lay bets on him on these stages as a dark horse but we're still going to hold off for a bit and watch him simmer to a boil.

One of the stage in the 2023 Vuelta he should make a big splash. It just depends on which.