Martin dominates Paris-Nice time trial, grabs stage win and yellow jersey

Already victorious in the time trial and the overall classification of the Volta ao Algarve, Tony Martin’s successful season continued today with a stomping time trial win in Paris-Nice. The German HTC Highroad rider covered the 27 kilometre course in Aix-en-Provence in a time of just over 33 minutes, beating Briton Bradley Wiggins (Sky Procycling) by 20 seconds.

Riche Porte (Saxo Bank SunGard) was third, 29 seconds down, while overnight race leader Andreas Klöden (Team RadioShack) was fourth. He did what he could to keep on terms with Martin, but conceded 46 seconds and, with it, the yellow jersey.

“It was a good course for me, not too technical and with really good roads, and I knew I could do well on it," Martin explained afterwards. “I started out full gas, saw I had a good advantage at the time check, and then tried to keep everything under control on the final climb.

“Yesterday [Thursday] had been a hard ride through the mountains, and I didn't keep anything back for today, so it was tough going both days. There were no particular tactics, just going all out.”

Porte was pleased with his third place. He’d said beforehand that he didn’t expect to win, but did believe that he would be near the top of the leaderboard. That prediction was spot on, and he’s shown that he is already in strong form at this early point of the season.

“For me it was a great result and with JJ’s [JJ Haedo] victory in Tirreno, it feels like the season is really taking form and is opening up for us now,” the Australian said afterwards. “It sure gives me and the whole team morale for the coming challenges.

“I think I have improved my time trial a lot after our training camp, where we worked on my position on the bike. Brad (McGee) and Bjarne (Riis) have really helped me a lot and thanks to them and my own effort, I finished third today.”

Starting quickly and gaining pace as the time trial went on, Martin moved 36 seconds clear of Klöden in the overall standings, and is a further three seconds ahead of Wiggins. He is a better climber than the latter and so is in a solid position heading into the final two days of the race.

Klöden said that he knew where he lost time. “I should have taken more risks in the descent,” he stated afterwards. “It could have saved me some extra seconds. But it would not have been enough for the victory or to save the yellow jersey. We have to be honest: Martin was just better.”

He is certain to attack tomorrow and Sunday, and can draw on the aid of his team-mates Levi Leipeheimer and Janez Brajkovic. They were ninth and twelfth in the time trial and are now sixth and seventh overall.

Ahead of them lie fourth-placed Rein Taaramae (Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne) and Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale), but both are over a minute behind Martin and have a lot to do to make up the lost time.

Other contenders who dropped time to Martin today are Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Xavier Tondo (Geox-TMC). They also made it into yesterday’s break, but modest time trial performances today put them over a minute and a half back.

The deficits mean that they will need to adopt a very aggressive approach to the mountainous days ahead. Both are climbing specialists and will need to take the fight to Martin, whose main strength is in time trials.

He is feeling upbeat about his chances, though. “I'm confident I'll take the leader's jersey all the way to Nice, but in a race as nervous as this one you can never be too certain of anything."

"It is a race I like. Two years ago I took the King of the Mountain's jersey here, and I've always thought I could maybe win it some time. I've got a good chance.”