Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) was the overwhelming favourite at the German time trial championships and the world champion lived up to expectations. On a 50km course in Wangen, Martin was 1.33 faster than second-placed Patrick Gretsch (Argos-Shimano) while Stefan Schumacher followed 20 seconds further adrift in 3rd.

Last year, Tony Martin had a disappointing season and was unable to find back to the strength that had seen him go almost unbeatable through the time trials in 2011. Despite his below-par performances, he did reclaim his German time trial crown which he had surprisingly lost one year earlier to Bert Grabsch.

This year the powerful German has been back to his best and besides a defeat at the mountain prologue in the Tour de Romandie, he is unbeaten in his favourite discipline. Hence, it came as no surprise that he came out on top when it was time to defend last year's national title this evening.

On the 50km course in Wangen, the double world champion was of course the overwhelming favourite but Germany has always been known for its rich vein of time trial talents and riders like Patrick Gretsch, Grabsch and Stefan Schumacher were eager to spur a surprise. Martin was, however, in a class of his own and put 1.33 into Gretsch whose 2nd place put him onto the podium for the third time in his career.

Schumacher completed the podium while 4-time winner Grabsch was a disappoining 9th. The former world champion has been far from his former strength in recent years and this week he had the disappointment of not being selected to the Tour de France.

That wasn't the case for Martin who is expected to play a prominent role at the helm of his Omega Pharma-Quick Step team when the race kicks off in Corsica on June 29. His stated goal is to take the leader's jersey after the stage 4 team time trial and today's performance certainly proves that he has the condition to play a key role during the first week of the race.

Result:

1. Tony Martin 1.00.58

2. Patrick Gretsch +1.33

3. Stefan Schumacher +1.53

4. Lars Teutenberg +2.48

5. Dominik Nerz +3.18

6. Nikias Arndt +3.23

7. Sven Forberger +3.28

8. Friedrich Meingast +4.41

9. Bert Grabsch +4.43

10. Jan-Niklas Droste +5.22