Etixx - Quick-Step rider Tony Martin, participating for Germany as their national ITT Champion, finished 7th in the 53km UCI World ITT Championship on Wednesday. He finished 1:16 down on gold medal winner Vasil Kiryienka, who had a winning time of 1:02.29 (50.894 km/h).

Adriano Malori finished 2nd, 9" down, and Jerome Coppel was 3rd, 26" down on Kiryienka.

Martin was 2nd fastest at the first intermediate point, with a time of 18:56.25. The three-time UCI World ITT Champion was then 6th and 7th at the next two checkpoints before the finish line. Yves Lampaert, a young Etixx - Quick-Step rider from Belgium, was also 31st (+2:59).

Etixx - Quick-Step rider Rigoberto Uran (Colombia) was also 51st (+4:40), and Petr Vakoc (Czech Republic) was 53rd (+5:01).

"It was a really strange time trial," Martin said. "For me it was it was a little too fast, like it was on the track. I didn't expect this, because I felt good, even in the first 8 kilometers until a right corner where the tailwind sections started. Up until that point I felt good, and like I could push power.

"But after that, in the tailwind, I completely lost rhythm. I couldn't handle the speed or play with my power.  It was too fast for me and I couldn’t handle the RPM and I didn’t expect this. Then on the uphill sections I couldn’t find my rhythm and I lost morale. I couldn’t get it back and it wasn’t my day. For the second half of the race it was more of a mental problem than a physical one.

"I had a really good preparation and I wanted to go for gold, and I was sure that I would go for gold but it was totally different to what I expected. Once you’re in a hole it’s really hard to come back.

"Dumoulin had a hard Vuelta so that’s an explanation. I heard that Dennis had a mechanical but I don’t know so maybe that’s the reason. It was a special time trial today. It was super fast.

"I was surprised and I was ready to go for gold. It was a really good test in the team time trial but I couldn’t do what I expected and I really have no explanation.

"It just wasn't my day. I'm really disappointed. I was confident going into today and I did everything I could to prepare for the race. I will try to look back in the future and analyze what maybe went wrong, but for now congratulations to Vasil Kiryienka, who was super strong today and deserves the gold medal."