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A Tour de France has never taken place in September before, and EF Pro Cycling’s Daniel “Dani” Martinez has never won a stage, until today. On the heels of his win at Criterium du Dauphine, Dani showed his class and power to capture his first win on stage 13 of the 2020 Tour de France – here’s how he did it.

The stage was set for EF Pro Cycling to put together a masterclass in team tactics. With seven categorized climbs over 191km in the Masif Central, the team’s climbers were ready to position Dani Martinez for the stage win.

EF positioned three riders in the breakaway, Colombian Dani Martinez, and Tour de France debutants Hugh Carthy and Neilson Powless. Late into the race Powless was the first to clip off the front displaying his fast descending skills aboard his SuperSix EVO. However, on the penultimate climb, the advantage to Neilson was closed by rival teams and sent a new leader up the road. Dani took to the front and closed the gap to the solo leader on the steep final climb, the Pur Mary.

In the final kilometers it was Dani against two rivals from the same team, eagerly trying to outfox the young Colombian. But when Dani launched his sprint there was no denying him the win at the end of an exciting stage.

“I'm really, really happy.  I love climbing in the mountains. I did a good job today. I'm really happy to come back at the Tour and I feel the stage went incredibly well,” said Dani Martinez.

Dani went on to say, “I had a week that wasn’t great. I didn’t have good sensations because I was still struggling after my crash, but I knew I could win a stage all the same and now I’ve done it. Today, I worked hard. I gave a lot on the last climb when I was with the two [Bora-Hansgrohe riders] of them. I could see they had a bit less strength in the end, so I thought I could win it in the sprint."