Friday's 13th stage of the Tour de France was a very contrasting day for Colombia.

Martinez, the winner of the Criterium du Dauphiné, had a roller coaster ride, crashing twice in the first stage, losing time in the Orcières-Merrette, and saying goodbye to the overall contenders on stage 7, just one week before his victory in Le Puy Marie. He had experienced a roller-coaster Tour de France.

Martinez was one of three EF Pro Cycling riders to break on Friday in a day-long 18-rider break. Midway through the stage, after a short dig by Hugh Carthy with Valentin Maduas (Groupama-FDJ), Martinez's other teammate, Nielson Powles, cleared before the fifth of seven climbs, with Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) chased hard.

When Powles was caught and dropped by the Paris-Nice winner, Martinez began chasing behind, first benefiting from a strong counter attack by Marc Soler (Movistar), then bringing along Schachmann's teammate Leonard Chemna, closed the gap himself.

On paper, it looked as if Martinez's chances were slim, as the two powerful climbers were rivals and worked hard to shut down Schachmann on the Puy Marie. Instead, he managed first to pull away from Schachmann and then Kemna in front of the line.

"When I heard that Powles was with Schachmann, I was pretty calm, but when I heard over the radio that Nielson had been dropped, I felt it was my duty to go look for him," Martinez said.

"When we crossed the second category (the Neronne pass) I thought we were fighting for second place. But when we reached Schachmann on the last climb, I thought it was possible again."

As expected, Kemna made one move as he caught up with his teammates when the climb got steeper than 10% with 1.6 km to go, but Martinez managed to make it back with his grinding but effective climb.

"I could tell from the way they were going that they weren't in that good of shape," Martinez said, "but it was never straightforward. But it was never straightforward," Martinez said.

Martinez said his first objective in the break was to help Rigoberto Urán in case the EF GC leader fought back from the main group, but then the gap between the break and the group opened up significantly, as much as 10 minutes as the finale approached.

"I'm very happy. Winning the Dauphiné was incredible, but this time I had a crash and it was a very tough Tour for me," Martinez commented. 'But I knew my basic form was there and I wanted at least a stage win.'

Urán himself finished just ahead of Egan Bernal, but with a fourth place overall, at least the podium is within reach for the veteran Colombian.

But no matter what happens in the final week, EF has a mountain stage in the current World Tour race within days, with Mike Woods in Tirreno-Adriatico and Martinez in the Tour de France.