Paul Martens
Paul Martens (born 26 October 1983) is a German former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2006 and 2021.[3][4]
![]() Martens at the 2016 Tour of Britain. | |
Personal information | |
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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 | |
2005 | KED Bianchi–Berlin |
2005 | T-Mobile Team (stagiaire) |
Professional teams | |
2006–2007 | Skil–Shimano |
2008–2021 | Rabobank[1][2] |
Major wins | |
Stage races
|
Career
Amateur years
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 LVM Saarland Trofeo beating the chasing peloton by 2 seconds. 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 Istrian Spring Trophy finishing 56th overall with his best result coming in the stage 3 sprint where he finished 16th. In late May 2002 he rode the Under-23 Tour de Berlin where he finished 13th overall but was the first rider born in 183 or later so he won the Youth classification. 2003 started with winning the Rund um Sebnitz in Germany. The only other notable event in 2003 was a podium placing on Stage 1 of the under-23 tour de Berlin. 2004 saw Martens get second at the German National Time Trial Championships in the Under-23 competition. Later in the season he completed in the Under-23 European and World time trial championships he finished 13th in both events.[5][6] 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 national event; Harzrundfahrt. Followed by 5th in the Stage 1 sprint of Circuit des Ardennes. Then a win at the Under-23 German National Time Trial Championships. For the later part of the 2005 season he was a stagiaire at UCI ProTeam T-Mobile Team.[7]
2006
In November 2005 Skil–Shimano announced they had signed Martens to their team on a two-year contract.[8] Martens Pro career began in Qatar with the International Grand Prix Doha where he finished in 126th position the second to last finisher nearly 4' 30" down on the winner. It was then onto a few stage races where he played the domestique role. The next races on his calendar were the Cobbled classics leading into the Ardennes classics.[9] Martens rode his only ever Tour of Flanders where he didn't finish and his only Paris–Roubaix where he came 99th almost 20 minuted down.[10] The first show of form was at the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt where he finished top-10 in two stages followed by a top 10 in Stage 4 of Tour de Picardie later in the month. The Tour de Luxembourg brought Martens first professional win, winning Stage 3 ahead of eventual overall winner Christian Vande Velde.[11] Martens second professional win came at the Münsterland Giro where he took the early break away and held the peloton off finishing two seconds ahead of them on line.[12]
2007
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.[13][14] It was then to Belgium for the Cobbled Classics where he didn't finish Nokere Koerse or Omloop Het Volk but came third in 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. In June 2007 the Tour de Luxembourg was held with Martens finishing in the top-10 in 3 stages and only losing 17 seconds in the prologue. This led to him finishing 4th overall 25 seconds down on the winner.[15] Stage 3 of the Ster Elektrotoer was won by Martens from a reduced bunch sprint after a hilly battle. This put himself into the leaders jersey only to lose the lead the next day and finish second overall. In August he raced the Rund um die Hainleite where he came third in another reduced bunch sprint. His last major result came at the Eneco Tour where he finished 9th overall. On 24 October 2007 Martens announced he would ride for UCI ProTeam Rabobank from 2008 on a two-year contract, saying his three professional wins in two years at Skil Shimano were impressive.[16]
Rabobank (2008 to 2021)
He competed in the 2015 Tour de France.[17]
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.[18][19] He retired following the 2021 Giro d'Italia,[3] where he finished 99th.
Major results
- 2001
- 1st
Madison (with Florian Piper), National Junior Road Championships
- 10th Overall Münsterland Tour Juniors
- 2002
- 1st
Youth classification Tour de Berlin U23
- 2003
- 1st Rund um Sebnitz
- 2004
- 2nd Time trial, National Under-23 Road Championships
- 2005
- 1st
Time trial, National Under-23 Road Championships
- 1st Harzrundfahrt
- 2006
- 1st Münsterland Giro
- 1st Stage 2 Tour de Luxembourg
- 2007
- 2nd Overall Ster Elektrotoer
- 1st Stage 2
- 3rd Rund um die Hainleite
- 3rd Grand Prix Rudy Dhaenens
- 4th Overall Tour de Luxembourg
- 5th Overall Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt
- 9th Overall Eneco Tour
- 2008
- 6th Overall Ster Elektrotoer
- 6th Overall Regio-Tour
- 8th Overall Sachsen Tour
- 10th Coppa Sabatini
- 2009
- 3rd GP Ouest–France
- 5th Eschborn–Frankfurt City Loop
- 6th Giro del Piemonte
- 8th Overall Sachsen Tour
- 2010
- 1st Grand Prix de Wallonie
- 4th Brabantse Pijl
- 4th Paris–Brussels
- 4th Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli
- 6th Grote Prijs Jef Scherens
- 8th E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
- 2011
- 10th Amstel Gold Race
- 10th La Flèche Wallonne
- 2012
- 1st Stage 4 Vuelta a Burgos
- 2013
- 1st
Overall Tour de Luxembourg
- 1st Stage 1 Volta ao Algarve
- 3rd Volta Limburg Classic
- 5th Overall Arctic Race of Norway
- 9th Overall Tour de Wallonie
- 2014
- 1st Stage 5 Tour of Belgium
- 2nd Ronde van Limburg
- 4th Overall Ster ZLM Toer
- 2015
- 10th Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes
- 2017
- 5th Volta Limburg Classic
- 10th Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race
- 2019
- 1st Stage 1 (TTT) UAE Tour
Grand Tour general classification results timeline
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 |
References
- "Team Jumbo-Visma 2020 roster presented in Amsterdam". Bianchi. F.I.V. Edoardo Bianchi S.p.A. 20 December 2019. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
- "Jumbo-Visma". UCI.org. Union Cycliste Internationale. Archived from the original on 2 January 2021. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
- "Paul Martens quits pro cycling this Sunday". Team Jumbo–Visma. Team Oranje Road BV. 28 May 2021. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
- "Paul Martens". www.procyclingstats.com. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- "European Championship, Road, ITT, U23 2004". www.cyclingarchives.com. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- Maloney, Tim (27 September 2004). "Speedy Slovenian Brajkovic slaps down favourite Dekker". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- Stevenson, John (9 August 2005). "T-Mobile for Regio Tour". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- Stevenson, John; Clarke, Les (2 November 2005). "Skil-Shimano starts two pro careers". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- "More teams finalised for the hilly classics". cyclingnews.com. 14 April 2006. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- Jones, Jeff; Kröner, Hedwig (9 April 2006). "The mean machine takes first Roubaix win for CSC". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- "2006 Tour de Luxembourg". FirstCycling.com. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- Westemeyer, Susan (3 October 2006). "Martens wins Munsterland Giro". CyclingNews.com. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- "Freire takes all". CyclingNews.com. 22 February 2007. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
- "Freire takes sprint". CyclingNews.com. 19 February 2007. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
- "Rast sprints to stage and tour win". CyclingNews.com. 10 June 2007. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
- "Rabobank signs German youngster". cyclingnews.com. 24 October 2007. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
- "2015 Tour de France start list". Velo News. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
- De Maio, Antonino (24 February 2020). "Jumbo – Visma, Paul Martens si ritirerà al termine della stagione" [Jumbo – Visma, Paul Martens will retire at the end of the season]. SpazioCiclismo – CyclingPro.net (in Italian). Antoine Plouvin SARL. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
- "Jumbo-Visma extend contracts with Eenkhoorn, Hofstede, Roosen and Pfingsten". Cyclingnews.com. 4 September 2020. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
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.
- "Paul Martens". FirstCycling.com. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
External links
Media related to Paul Martens at Wikimedia Commons
- Paul Martens at UCI
- Paul Martens at Cycling Archives
- Paul Martens at ProCyclingStats
- Paul Martens at Cycling Quotient
- Paul Martens at CycleBase