Tony Martin made one of the most dominant time trial performances of the entire season in today's 3rd stage of the Tour of Belgium when he was no less than 40 seconds faster than 2nd placed Ramon Sinkeldam (Argos-Shimano) on a short 15km course. The German now heads into two stages in the Ardennes with a similar gap on Sinkeldam in the GC but expects the toughness of the stages to produce a significant challenge over the weekend.

Tony Martin had lined up at the start in the Tour of Belgium with the firm objective of defending last year's win and today he laid the foundations for doing just that by crushing the opposition in the stage 3 time trial. He put 40 seconds into Ramon Sinkeldam (Argos-Shimano) in just 15km of racing of flat roads to continue his run of success in the time trials this season.

Last year he never found back to the strength he showed in 2011 but this year he is once again back to his best. Whenever he has lined up in a "normal" time trial, he has taken convincing win and his only defeat so far this year came in the short mountain prologue in the Tour de Romandie.

His superiority was made even more impressive by the fact that most of the peloton had dry roads for their rides while Tony Martin raced under a torrential downpour. He acknowledged that it had influenced his race and forced him to take some risks in the numerous corners on the course.

"I don't know what the conditions for the others were, but I had wet roads," he said. "I had to slow down a bit in the corners but also take a few risks. So, I'm really amazed that I'm in the lead and also with a big gap. I hope it stays now like this until the end. It would be really great for me and the team."

Last year Martin defended his lead on a final stage in the Ardennes where he kept his calm despite numerous attacks. This year the course is even tougher and he faces two straight days of racing in the Belgian hills and the last of those is even much harder than last year's queen stages as it takes the riders over the Col de la Redoute no less than 3 times.

Martin knows that his defence will be harder than last year but finds consolation in the fact that teammates Kristof Vandewalle, Tom Boonen and Niki Terpstra all finished in the top 10 today and that the team now occupies 4 of the 4 spots in the top 5.

"The roads are really hard in the last two days, especially the last day," he explained. "So I think it will be much more work than last year. But we have a very strong team as you can see by all the riders we have in the top five GC and top 10 stage classifications. So we will do our best to protect the race lead with a great group."

Sports director Tom Steels was impressed by the way Martin made up for the wet roads on the flat stretches of the course.

"The parcour wasn't so technical, but the rain complicated a lot the things," hesaid. "Tony had to ride in the rain, so in all the corners he had to slow down — but he really went fast in the straight part of the parcour. He really had confidence in his materials and tires today. Concerning the GC, we will face two difficult stages. Especially on Sunday, it's a really hard stage, it's going to be tricky. He has a good advantage, but it will be a fight until the end."

Martin will first defend his jersey on tomorrow's rolling course in the Ardennes which finishes with a sligthly uphill final kilometer.