Vuelta: Lenny Martinez loses the red jersey to Sepp Kuss, Primoz Roglic offers himself the 8th stage

His adventure in red lasted two days. Two stages during which the name of Lenny Martinez became a little more ingrained in the minds of cycling stars and his followers. Author of a fantastic start to Vuelta, the prodigy of Groupama-FDJ had only a barely inflated mattress of eight seconds on Sepp Kuss and 51 seconds on Marc Soler.

This Saturday, in the final ascent before diving towards the finish in Xorret de Cati, Martinez broke down. The 20-year-old runner was dropped just over 5 kilometers from the line, while his American dolphin was excited by the idea of ​​​​offering the red jersey. A time in difficulty, Kuss hung on to snatch the leader’s jersey from Martinez (13th), who arrived more than a minute from the leading group, settled in the sprint by Primoz Roglic.

While Remco Evenepoel and Juan Ayuso took the remaining bonuses, those of second and third place, Kuss crossed the line 1 minute and 8 seconds before Martinez, relegating him to exactly one minute in the general classification. Soler intercalates him in second position, 17 seconds ahead of the Habs.

Lenny Martinez took the leader’s red tunic at the end of the sixth stage won by Sepp Kuss. Only the American had preceded him on arrival at the Javalambre Observatory. The native of Cannes had also signed a good seventh place in the third stage, which had been blown up by Remco Evenepoel.