Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) was the big favourite to win the first stage of the Dubai Tour but failed in his quest to score the first victory of the season when he could only manage 4th. Having been obliged to start last by the organizers, he ventured his frustration that all favourites had not been asked to start in the final block.

Tony Martin is usually a calm guy but after today's time trial in the Dubai Tour he was clearly angry. Having long targeted the opening time trial and the overall at the Dubai Tour, he had only managed to take 4th despite being the overwhelming favourite.

Martin's frustration was caused by the fact that the organizers had asked him to start last due to his status as world champion. While training on the course on Tuesday, the riders had noticed that the wind picked up during the day and this had prompted BMC to let their best riders go down the ramp early, with eventual winner Taylor Phinney starting as the second BMC rider.

That may have been an advantage for Phinney who put 22 seconds into Martin on the 9.9km course. While the German refused to use it as an excuse, he was clearly wondering what might have been

"First of all I felt really good," Martin said. "I made a good race. When I saw the data on the clock it was quite OK. The result at the end, I don't want to say it's the reason of circumstances, but I wish we had all started at the same time — all of the main contenders — to have a realistic result. But I had to start at the end, so OK. I did my best and considering the situation I think it was really OK. Congratulations to Taylor Phinney as it was a strong race for him and he deserved the victory.

"I don't want to say that starting earlier means I'd have won but I wanted to win," he told Cyclingnews at the finish. "I understand they wanted me to start last, but they should then tell all the big guys to start at the end. My sports directeurs was fighting for me but when the race organisation says no, you can't fight it. If they want me to win, that's it. Next time they know it."

It should be noticed that Martin was beaten by young Lasse Norman Hansen (Garmin-Sharp) who also started in the final block of riders.

Martin is still well-placed on GC but going up against a classics specialist like Phinney, he knows that it will be hard to use the wind to his advantage.

"I'm not a specialist in the cross winds," he said. "I think I'm able to defend a first place but to get it back in the cross winds, is not my best discipline."

Starting at 10.45 CET, you can follow tomorrow's windy stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live. You can read our stage preview here.