came 99th almost 20 minuted down. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 from 2008 on a two-year contract, saying his three professional wins in two years at Skil Shimano were impressive. Rabobank (2008 to 2021) He competed in the 2015 Tour de France. 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. He retired following the 2021 Giro d'Italia, where he finished 99th. Major results Sources: 2001 1st Madison (with Florian Piper), National Junior Road Championships 10th Overall Münsterland Tour Juniors