Tour of Belgium: Tony Martin announces comeback with time trial domination

Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) confirmed his comeback from the injuries sustained in his April training crash with a dominant victory in the Tour of Belgium’s stage four time trial. The World champion completed the ultra-flat 20.5km course, between Turnhout and Arendonk in a time of 24’04”, some 46 seconds faster than Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) in second place, with Martin’s teammate Niki Terpstra third another six seconds back.

“I’m happy to have won for the first time this the year,” said Martin. “It took a while but now I'm satisfied. It was hard a windy time trial, maybe not one of the best of my career but it was important to break the ice. We have a really strong team. We will try to fight for the GC tomorrow. There are a few guys we have to watch.

“Tomorrow it will be a battle,” he continued. “It's a hard stage, but I feel very good and I will try for it, surrounded by a great team able to ride without fear in the wind. The guys here know every metre of tomorrow's race and they are really motivated.

“It was my goal to make a good race here in Belgium and so far I did what I was expecting from myself,” he added. “It's a pleasure to return to victory in Belgium in front of such a great crowd.”

Jurgen Van De Walle (Lotto-Belisol) was the first rider off, posting a time of 27’01” for the 20.5km course, but was beaten two riders later by Karl Menzies (UnitedHealthcare), who lowered it to 26’25”. This in turn was shortly beaten by Rick Flens (Rabobank), whose time of 25’55” was to stand for three quarters of an hour before it was lowered to 25’09” by Alexander Serov (RusVelo).

The Russian’s time was also to stand as the best for almost 45 minutes, before Westra went 19 seconds quicker. Shortly after the Dutchman had finished though, Martin blasted through the finish, a massive 46 seconds quicker. Terpstra took the final place on the podium a few minutes later, but the final 37 riders were largely made up of the sprinters, and only Lars Boom (Rabobank) - the ninth from last to ride - was able to make the top ten.

Last to start was André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol), the winner of the three previous stages, but the German’s time of 26’25” was only good enough for 41st place, and he slipped to 18th overall.