Unsurprisingly, Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) defended his title as German time trial champion but the race ended up being a lot more dramatic than expected. At one point, the world champion went off course but a time loss of around a minute was not enough to prevent him from taking a comfortable victory.

Going into the German time trial championships, it seemed that there was almost no reason to have a race. World champion Tony Martin was the overwhelming favourite and with the retirement of Bert Grabsch, it would be a real miracle if any of his rivals would be able to prevent him from defending his title.

However, it ended up being a bit more exciting than anticipated as Martin went off course at the midpoint of the race and had taken the wrong way for a few hundred metres before he realized his mistake. According to Radsport-News, the world champion lost around a minute because of the incident and suddenly it seemed that the race could have an unexpected winner.

However, Martin was in a class of his own and when he stopped the clock at the end of the 44.4km course in Baunatal-Edermünde he had beaten Nikias Arndt (Giant-Shimano) into second by a massive 57 seconds. Lars Teutenberg completed the podium, having lost an additional 17 seconds to Martin.

The victory was Martin's fourth in the event - number three in a row - as only Grabsch who created a surprise in 2011, has been able to break his dominance. It is still unclear whether Martin will line up in Sunday's road race before he heads to the Tour de France.

Result:

1. Tony Martin 56.22

2. Nikias Arndt +0.57

3. Lars Teutenberg +1.14

4. Daniel Westmattelmann +2.06

5. Nico Hesslich +2.09