Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) had feared that the course for today's Vuelta a Espana time trial was too hilly but during yesterday's recon, the world champion was positively surprised. He promises to give it his best shot and expects the stage to be good training for the worlds.

On paper, the course for today's Vuelta a Espana looks very hilly with a category 3 climb located at the midpoint of the stage, prompting many to suggest that it would be a day more for the GC contenders than the TT specialists. World champion Tony Martin had his own doubts, having been negatively surprised when he checked out the course for the final time trial of this year's Tour de France which ended up being too difficult for the German.

This time, there were, however, positive surprises in store for Martin when he checked out the course yesterday. A regular climb and a non-technical descent plays the stage into the hands of the specialists and the German is confident that he has a solid chance of winning the stage.

"I was surprised in a positive way about the parcour," Martin said. "When I checked the profile at the beginning of La Vuelta I thought it was too hard with the climb in the middle, Alto de Moncayo. But today we went there and it is actually not so bad. The first 7 kilometers are a bit up and down, and then there's the climb. But it's not really super steep. I think this is a TT for the climbers, but I can still have my chance. I will give it a try."

"Also the descent following the climb is really fast, not so technical, and the last 10 kilometers are flat and slowly downhill," he added. "So that is good for me and my power. It's also a matter of distributing my effort throughout the parcour. I think this will be good training for me leading up to Worlds, and I will do my best for a good result."

The time trial is already underway and right now you can follow it on CyclingQuotes.com/live.