German speaks about Omega Pharma-Quickstep's narrow victory
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Time trial world champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) would finish the stage 17 mountain time trial in 27th place, more than three minutes behind Chris Froome(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Reigning time trial world champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) en route to victory in the German TT championship(Image credit: Mario Stiehl)
Just like last year, Tony Martin began world championships week with a narrow win in the team time trial event, as he led his Omega Pharma-QuickStep squad to victory over Orica-GreenEdge. The Australian squad edged out Omega Pharma-QuickStep for the win at the Tour de France team time trial in Nice, and Martin was pleased to reverse that result in Florence on Sunday.
“Sometimes to win it this way is even nicer than to win by a big gap,” Martin said. “We were one second in front. We knew it would be really close at the end even on this long distance.”
The centrepiece of Martin’s week, however, is the individual time trial, where he is chasing a third consecutive world title. The field for Wednesday’s race is arguably the strongest for many years, and Martin will face stiff opposition from Fabian Cancellara, Bradley Wiggins and last year’s silver medallist, Taylor Phinney.
“I’m pretty optimistic for the race on Wednesday,” Martin said. “Today [Sunday] gives me a lot of morale. But to be honest, at this moment I don’t think about Wednesday, I just think about today.”
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