Until Wednesday, UCI World TT Champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) had swept all before him in the ITTs that he had ridden during 2013, but on a hilly and undulationg parcours that did little to meet the characteristics of a rider of his nature, the German finished 27th, trailing Chris Froome (Sky) by 3'06".

"I think it was more important to get the routine for the bike changes and for more hilly courses," Sport and Development Manager Rolf Aldag said of Tony Martin's performance. "Because, you know, you can be the best in the flat time trials as he has proven here at the Tour by winning stage 11. But it's more important for his future and for the team that we have a good approach for the mountain time trials - that we remain focused and do everything as well as we can. The warm-up, the bike change, he never did it before. So, it was the first time to 'feel the legs.' If you jump off the bike with a 185 bpm heart rate, and all the blood runs into your legs and they ask you 'no, it's not the finish line?' and you have to continue for another 12km. So all of that is a new experience to him and I think that's why it was important to try our best with him today."