Guillaume Martin does not have his head in the clouds, but his gaze focused on the summits.
He climbs.
It advances, following the course of a carefully considered trajectory.
Third in the Tour, a handful of seconds behind Primoz Roglic and Egan Bernal at the end of the first week, after the Pyrenees… Who would have imagined it?
Like this Sunday in Laruns where he finished on the heels of the big favorites of the competition, the leader of Cofidis clings to the time which flies in front of him, in the wake of wheels trying to make themselves look good.
"I am not pretentious, I am not fighting to win the Tour, not yet anyway, he says once the line crossed, the calm and confident voice of someone who knows himself well.
Finishing 10-11 seconds behind riders of this class is a benchmark.
I don't miss much at the top of Marie-Blanque to switch with the best.
I was with Quintana, Porte, Mollema, there is nothing shameful in being at this level.
"
"He is capable of making a Top 5 on the Tour"
He is also, at 27, the best tricolor of the gang, ahead of Bardet, Pinot or Alaphilippe.
A champion in power who follows a linear progression on the Grande Boucle (23rd in 2017, 21st in 2018, 12th in 2019, and he also finished 3rd in the Dauphiné this year).
“He is capable of making a Top 5 on the Tour,” said his manager, Cédric Vasseur, recruiting him in the offseason.
"I joined Cofidis to take a step forward," added Guillaume Martin, who had just spent four seasons with Belgian team Wanty Gobert, "but also because it is an international team.
I like to discover other ways of seeing.
This is his leitmotif.
The young man built himself like that, his eyes wide open to the world, whether outside or inside.
Under an almost puny appearance (1.73 m, 55 kg), he developed a strength that today seems unalterable.
Guillaume Martin, here in his Orne estate in 2018, remains attached to his Norman roots.
LP
A brilliant pupil, holder of a master's degree in philosophy, he devoted his thesis to Nietzsche, juggled with Plato and the Greek philosophers to the point of writing a play and a novel about them.
“Contrary to popular belief, I'm not the only one in the peloton to read,” he says.
It is an environment which is certainly more open than a lot of intellectual circles.
"
Guillaume Martin expresses himself easily and his words are rarely agreed.
If he escapes, if he travels endlessly, from one race to another, from one course to another, the encyclopedic cyclist is nonetheless a landlord rooted in Normandy, where he has grown up.
He joins his parents there as soon as he can at the La Boderie estate, twelve hectares a few kilometers from Flers in the Orne.
“I spent the confinement there,” he says.
I got a taste of my post-career.
And I enjoyed this period.
From all points of view.
I had time with my partner, Emilie, with my family.
I got involved in my project to renovate the lodges and develop the site.
"
"I feel fresher than the others"
A downtime.
A break which also explains the new dimension taken on this Tour de France.
“I have a lot less competition days than the other years,” he explains.
I feel fresher.
»Interesting in perspective of a decisive last mountainous week in the Alps… How far will he go?
"A seated intellectual goes less far than a walking idiot," wrote the dialogue writer Michel Audiard.
An intellectual on a bicycle can go a long way too.
