![]() Martens at the 2016 Tour of Britain. | |
Personal information | |
---|---|
Full name | Paul Martens |
Born | Rostock, East Germany | 26 October 1983
Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) |
Weight | 69 kg (152 lb; 10 st 12 lb) |
Team information | |
Current team | Retired |
Discipline | Road |
Role | Rider |
Amateur teams | |
2001 | Mecklenburg Vorpommern |
2004 | Frankfurter RC 90 [1] |
2004 | Team Ispo Lotusan Cottbus [1] |
2005 | Berliner TSC [1] |
2005 | KED Bianchi–Berlin [1] |
2005 | T-Mobile Team (stagiaire) |
Professional teams | |
2006–2007 | Skil–Shimano |
2008–2021 | Rabobank [2] [3] |
Major wins | |
Stage races
|
Paul Martens (born 26 October 1983) is a German former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2006 and 2021 for the Skil–Shimano and Team Jumbo–Visma teams. [4] [5] Martens achieved seven victories during his professional career, including a stage win and a general classification win at the Tour de Luxembourg, and stage wins at the Volta ao Algarve, the Vuelta a Burgos and the Tour of Belgium.
Martens started racing junior level events in 2000 showing no particular specialization finishing in the middle of the pack in the Niedersachsen Juniors and Cottbuser Juniors races. In 2001 he started to show some form finishing 3rd in Stage 1 of the Trofeo Karlsberg beating the chasing peloton by 2 seconds. [6] Later in the year he finished 10th overall at the Münsterland Tour Juniors, a race he would win the senior version of later in his career. In 2002 he rode the Jadranska Magistrala finishing 56th overall with his best result coming in the stage 3 sprint where he finished 16th. In late May 2002 he rode the Tour de Berlin where he finished 13th overall but was the first rider born in 1983 or later so he won the young rider classification.
He started 2003 with a win in the Rund um Sebnitz in Germany, and he also took a podium placing on Stage 1 of the Tour de Berlin. 2004 saw Martens finish second at the under-23 German National Time Trial Championships, and finished 13th in both the European and World under-23 time trials later in the season. [7] [8] Martens signed for amateur team KED Bianchi Team Berlin for the 2005 season, this gave him a calendar with more UCI races over the year. He started the year with a win at the Harzrundfahrt national event, [9] followed by 5th in the Stage 1 sprint of Circuit des Ardennes and a win at the Under-23 German National Time Trial Championships. [9] For the later part of the 2005 season he was a stagiaire at UCI ProTeam T-Mobile Team. [10]
In November 2005 Skil–Shimano announced they had signed Martens to their team on a two-year contract. [9]
Martens' professional career began in Qatar with the International Grand Prix Doha where he finished in second-to-last position, nearly 4' 30" down on the winner. Having acted as a domestique in his next starts in stage races, Martens moved onto the Cobbled classics and Ardennes classics. [11] Martens contested, for the only time in his career, the Tour of Flanders and Paris–Roubaix, finishing just the latter and at almost 20 minutes down in 99th position. [12] He recorded two top-10 stage finishes at April's Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt, followed by a top 10 in Stage 4 of Tour de Picardie the following month. The Tour de Luxembourg brought Martens' first professional win, winning Stage 3 ahead of eventual overall winner Christian Vande Velde. [13] Martens' second professional win came at the Münsterland Giro where he took the early breakaway and held the peloton off by two seconds. [14]
Martens started 2007 at the Vuelta a Andalucía where he finished 6th in the bunch sprint of stage 2 and ended 21st overall after the 5 stages. [15] [16] He failed to finish at Omloop Het Volk and the Nokere Koerse, but finished third at the Grand Prix Rudy Dhaenens. The first top-10 result in a stage race came at the final edition of Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt where Martens finished 4th in Stage 3 and then 2nd in Stage 4 to finish 5th overall, 16 seconds down on the winner. At the Tour de Luxembourg in June, Martens finished in the top-10 in 3 stages and ultimately finished 4th overall, 25 seconds down on the winner. [17] Stage 3 of the Ster Elektrotoer was won by Martens from a reduced bunch sprint after a hilly battle on the Cauberg, [18] which earned him the race leader's jersey; he lost the race lead to Sebastian Langeveld on the final day and finished second overall. [19] In August he raced the Rund um die Hainleite where he came third in another reduced bunch sprint. [20] His last major result came at the Eneco Tour where he finished 9th overall.
In October 2007, Martens announced he would ride for UCI ProTeam Rabobank from 2008 on an initial two-year contract, saying his three professional wins in two years at Skil–Shimano were impressive. [21]
In his first season with the team, Martens took top-ten overall finishes at the Ster Elektrotoer (sixth), the Regio-Tour (sixth) and the Sachsen Tour (eighth), [22] and he finished in tenth at the Coppa Sabatini one-day race. [23] The following year, he finished on the podium at the GP Ouest-France – held as part of the UCI ProTour – where he finished third behind Simon Gerrans and Pierrick Fédrigo. [24] He also recorded top-ten results at the Eschborn–Frankfurt City Loop (fifth), [25] the Giro del Piemonte (sixth), and a repeat of his eighth-place overall finish from the previous year, at the Sachsen Tour. [26]
He recorded his first victory with Rabobank in 2010, winning the Grand Prix de Wallonie, [27] ahead of Riccardo Riccò and Cadel Evans. He also recorded fourth-place finishes at Brabantse Pijl, Paris–Brussels and the Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli, [27] [28] while also finishing in the top-ten placings at the Grote Prijs Jef Scherens (sixth), and the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen (eighth). [27] In 2011, Martens recorded tenth-place finishes in two of the Ardennes classics – at the Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne. [29] [30] At the 2012 Vuelta a Burgos, Martens took a stage victory on the penultimate day of the race, winning on an uphill finish at Clunia. [31]
On his first race day of the 2013 season, Martens won the opening stage of the Volta ao Algarve into Albufeira; he and Tiago Machado had gone clear of the field within the closing stages, and they managed to remain clear while teammate Theo Bos led home the peloton in third place, a few metres behind. [32] Later in the spring, he finished third in the Volta Limburg Classic in a sprint finish of a select group of riders. [33] In June, Martens took his first overall stage race success, [34] by winning the general classification at the Tour de Luxembourg; he was third overall heading into final stage, [35] but was able to overhaul Jonathan Hivert and Matthias Brändle on the hilly finishing circuit in Luxembourg City, and took the overall victory by four seconds ahead of Hivert. [36] He later took top-ten overall finishes at the Tour de Wallonie (ninth) and the Arctic Race of Norway (fifth). [37] [38]
In June 2014, Martens won the final, hilly stage of the Tour of Belgium in a sprint finish in Oreye. [39] He then finished second to Mathieu van der Poel at the Ronde van Limburg, and fourth overall at the Ster ZLM Toer in his next two starts. [40] [41] Martens made his Tour de France début in 2015, [42] but he took no further individual wins over the next few years, with his best result coming at the 2017 Volta Limburg Classic, where he finished in fifth place, behind the lead group. [43]
In February 2020, Martens announced that he would retire from cycling at the end of the season; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Martens intended to prolong his career until the middle of the 2021 season. [44] [45] He retired following the 2021 Giro d'Italia, [4] where he finished 99th.
Grand Tour | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 78 | — | — | — | — | 63 | — | — | — | — | — | 75 | — | 99 |
![]() | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 80 | 98 | 82 | 81 | — | — | — |
![]() ![]() | — | DNF | — | 119 | — | — | 58 | — | — | — | — | — | 109 | — |
— | Did not compete |
---|---|
DNF | Did not finish |
Maarten Wynants is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2021 for the Chocolade Jacques–Topsport Vlaanderen, Quick-Step and Team Jumbo–Visma teams. He now works as a directeur sportif for his final professional team, UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike.
Robert Gesink is a Dutch professional cyclist, who rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike. His major victories include the 2012 Tour of California, the 2011 Tour of Oman and the 2010 Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal. Gesink also won the Giro dell'Emilia twice and offered some good performances on Grand Tours and one-week stage races, thanks in part to his climbing and time trialing abilities.
Laurens ten Dam is a Dutch cyclist, who competes in gravel cycling. He formerly competed professionally in road cycling between 2003 and 2019 for the Rabobank GS3, BankGiroLoterij, Unibet.com, LottoNL–Jumbo, Team Sunweb and CCC Team squads. During his road racing career, Ten Dam took two victories – stage wins at the 2006 Course de Solidarność et des Champions Olympiques and the 2008 Critérium International.
Jos van Emden is a Dutch former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2023 for the Trientalis–Apac Team, the Rabobank Continental Team and Team Jumbo–Visma.
Tony Hans-Joachim Martin is a German former professional road bicycle racer. Martin was known as a time trial specialist, and is a four-time world champion in the discipline – having won the title in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016 – which is joint-most with Fabian Cancellara. He also won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, finishing runner-up to Bradley Wiggins in the event. Martin was also part of four world championship-winning team time trial squads, with Omega Pharma–Quick-Step/Etixx–Quick-Step, in 2012, 2013 and 2016, and with Germany in the mixed relay time-trial in 2021.
Rohan Dennis is an Australian former cyclist, who competed professionally in the track and road disciplines of the sport for five different teams.
Thomas De Gendt is a Belgian professional road racing cyclist, who rides for UCI ProTeam Lotto–Dstny.
Sep Vanmarcke is a Belgian former professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2008 and 2023 for Jong Vlaanderen–Bauknecht, Topsport Vlaanderen–Mercator, LottoNL–Jumbo, EF Pro Cycling, and Israel–Premier Tech, before being forced to retire from the sport for medical reasons. During his professional career, Vanmarcke took nine victories, including the 2012 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the 2019 Bretagne Classic Ouest-France and the 2022 Maryland Cycling Classic one-day races.
Steven Kruijswijk is a Dutch road bicycle racer, who rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike. Kruijswijk is best known for his strong ability in the mountains where he has taken his greatest success; he has taken two professional victories during his career – a stage win at the 2011 Tour de Suisse, and the general classification at the 2014 Arctic Race of Norway.
Wilco Kelderman is a Dutch professional road bicycle racer who rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike.
Bert-Jan Lindeman is a Dutch professional road bicycle racer, who currently rides for UCI Continental team VolkerWessels Cycling Team. His older brother Adrie is also a cyclist, who last rode for the Koga team in the Netherlands.
Dylan van Baarle is a Dutch professional road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike.
Primož Roglič is a Slovenian professional racing cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe. A former ski jumper, Roglič switched to cycling after an accident suffered at Planica. Despite becoming a professional at the relatively late age of 23, Roglič has since become one of the most successful cyclists of his generation, with many notable wins in time trials, one-week stage races, and Grand Tours.
Jan Tratnik is a Slovenian cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike. Professional since 2009, he has won the 2024 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and a stage of the 2020 Giro d'Italia. Tratnik is also a four time Slovenian national time trial champion and a one-time national road race champion.
Christophe Laporte is a French professional cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike. A sprinter and classics rider, Laporte has taken more than 30 victories during his professional career, including wins in 2023 at Gent–Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen and the road race at the UEC European Road Championships. He has also won a stage at the 2022 Tour de France, a silver medal in the road race at the 2022 UCI Road World Championships and a bronze medal in the road race at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Wout van Aert is a Belgian professional road and cyclo-cross racer who rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike. Van Aert won three consecutive men's races at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Tiesj Benoot is a Belgian cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike.
The 2019 ZLM Tour was the 32nd edition of the ZLM Tour cycling stage race. It started on 19 June in Yerseke and ended on 23 June in Tilburg and was a part of the 2019 UCI Europe Tour as a 2.1-ranked event.
Olav Kooij is a Dutch professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike.
The 2022 season for Team Jumbo–Visma is the team's 39th season overall and the fourth season under the current name. The team has been a UCI WorldTeam since 2005, when the tier was first established. They use Cervélo bicycles, Shimano drivetrain, Shimano wheels and Agu clothing.
I've been close before, but this is the first time I've actually won a stage race.
The Sojasun rider finished tenth today and keeps a two second lead on IAM's Matthias Brändle and three seconds on Paul Martens of Blanco Procycling.
Martens was set to retire at the end of this season, but has decided to push the end of his racing career back a little more.
Media related to Paul Martens at Wikimedia Commons