Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) lived up to his status as the overwhelming favourite by winning the German time trial championships. The former world champion was 2.10 faster than runner-up Nikias Arndt (Giant-Alpecin) while Stefan Schumacher (CCC) was 2.58 behind in third.

Martin won his first title in 2010 but surprisingly he was beaten by Bert Grabsch in 2011 when he was totally unstoppable in the biggest races and claimed his first Worlds title. Since then he has been sitting firmly atop the German hierarchy and today he was again the clear favourite.

Martin covered the 45km course in Einhausen in 52.10 which was clearly better than Nikias Arndt who was runner-up for the second year in a row. Schumacher finished third just as he did two years ago when Patrick Gretsch was second.

Gretsch was expected to be one of the biggest rivals but delivered a disppointing performance by finishing seventh.

Martin will skip the road race which will be held on Sunday.