Martin comes up with bizarre explanation for Cofidis' disastrous Tour, team reacts as if stung by a wasp

Martin, who has previously been vocal about doping, the Tour route, and the development of cycling, was nowhere to be seen with Cofidis. The team has only won four times in 2024, although one of those wins was a Giro stage by Benjamin Thomas. In the Tour standings, Martin finished thirteenth, nearly 45 minutes behind Tadej Pogacar. It didn’t help that climbers Ion Izagirre and Jesús Herrada had to go home sick, and sprinters Bryan Coquard and Axel Zingle were at odds with each other.

According to Martin, who is rumored to be moving to Groupama-FDJ next year, Cofidis' poor performance is mainly their own fault. When asked if he wanted to analyze his power data, the climber responded: "That’s impossible because I don’t have a power meter. Our bikes weigh 7.7 kilograms, 1 kilogram more than the allowed limit. I don’t want to make my bike even heavier with a 200-gram bike computer."

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A kilo over the limit is a huge deal in cycling. "We watch our weight all year through our diet, so 200 grams might not seem like much. But when you calculate with a bike that weighed a kilo too much, I wouldn’t have been 45 seconds behind the Pogacar group at the top of the Bonette (on day nineteen, ed.). I would have stayed with them and had time to eat better. Overall, I would have been calmer."

It all sounds a bit frustrated, but Martin was actually quite satisfied with his thirteenth place after the final time trial on Sunday, he confided to Cyclism'Actu. "I didn’t expect to climb one spot higher. I wanted to hold onto my fourteenth place, although I did expect a bit more from this Tour. I fluctuated between chasing stage wins and competing for the classification. A top fifteen is ultimately not bad, but I am a bit disappointed."

Cedric Vasseur's team was quick to respond to these statements, as there was some uproar on social media over Martin's words. "The bikes used by all riders are designed in collaboration with our performance department and the design and research teams of our partners. Some of our riders actively participated in this design by providing their expertise and sharing their experiences to offer the team high-tech equipment."

"The weight of the bike is an important factor, but not the only performance factor," said Cofidis. "The bike used by Martin is subject to specific choices to not exceed 7.4 kilograms, a measure slightly below the average of the bikes of the best riders in the peloton. Our riders benefit from advanced materials with LOOK frames," they noted.

"We are convinced that our partners have enabled us to compete with our opponents. We have also achieved several victories with the same bike in the 2023 Tour de France, the 2023 Vuelta and the 2024 Giro, and we have just finished the Tour again with the best-ranked French rider in the classification," the team stated. "We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our partners for their trust and their drive to develop the best material."