Day four of the 2025 ‘Race to the Sun’ had freezing temperatures, rain, and even snow, on the 163.4km between Vichy and La Loge des Gardes. The weather made the road surfaces so treacherous that a team car crashed and the stage had to be neutralised for a while, but not before Team Bahrain Victorious’ leader – Santiago Buitrago – had lost control of his front wheel on a right hand bend when returning to the bunch after a puncture. In the resulting fall, he hit his head hard on the tarmac. The Colombian was immediately withdrawn from the race by the team as a precaution and in line with concussion protocols, and was taken to hospital to be checked over by doctors.
With Santi out, new French signing Lenny Martinez had to step up, and did so with courage, strength, panache and aplomb, to finish fourth behind winner Joao Almeida (UAE). The 21 year old was part of a select ‘Maillot Jaune’ group that caught the final breakaway stragglers and contested the stage victory. In the final two km Martinez went tête-a-tête with double Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma), and held his own as the others faded.
“It was such a hard day because I was frozen to the bone by the cold. It was really tough to get going again, but it was so great to be right up there on a stage at such a prestigious race, competing with the big names like Jonas”
With 100m left, there were four riders in front: Almeida passed Vingegaard to take victory, and Matthias Skjelmose (LTK) finished just a couple of metres ahead of Martinez.
“Once I eventually managed to warm myself up, I think this was a good result – obviously one day soon I hope to be crossing the line first on days like these, but I’m definitely content with what we did today.”
Given the circumstances: the conditions and losing a teammate, this was perhaps the most impressive ride of his career so far.
Lead sports director in France for the week is Roman Kreuziger, who was disappointed to lose the team’s leader early in the race, but very impressed with the performance of the newest signing.
“It’s very sad that after just having a puncture Santi crashed out. Luckily he’s with our doctor at Vichy hospital and we think he’s going to be ok – he’ll have some scans tonight just to be sure, but he’ll be back stronger.
There were riders all over the road from km 115-134, changing their clothes etc, and it was a really difficult moment when the race was neutralised. In the finale we really pushed the guys to be there and to be ready, because even though something happened, crashes are a part of cycling and we roll on.
As for Lenny – he really showed what he has today! Maybe tactically it wasn’t perfect, but it’s a big boost for his confidence. Not just for him, but for all of the group here. With the leader out, it was good to have that today. Now we have to keep what we had in the plan from the beginning because Lenny has shown he can be up there with the best. I really hope that tomorrow could be our day – but there is no pressure. We’re gutted for Santi and impressed by Lenny, in equal measure. And now we look forward for the second half of this Paris-Nice.”
Thursday’s fifth stage of eight (203km from Saint-Just-en-Chevalet to La Côte-Saint-Andre [Notre-Dame-De-Sciez]), is slightly easier on paper, but still contains seven categorised climbs and over 2,600 vertical metres.
While all that was going on in France, at Tirreno-Adriatico it was the longest stage of this edition Follonica-Colfiorito, 239km), also under heavy rain. TBV riders worked to protect our leader Antonio Tiberi, who moved up to 3rd place on GC. Pello Bilbao was our best-placed rider in 12th, with Afonso Eulálio also finishing in the first group. Tomorrow the peloton will face a challenging mountainous day, with on the menu the highest point of the race (1,558m, Valico la Crocetta).
