“Der Panzerwagen” not lost any form three weeks after being hit by a car in training
The ‘man of the match’, or ‘most valuable player’ in today’s Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt was, without question, Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Tony Martin. The World time trial champion was the most aggressive rider in the race, spending much of the second half trying to break way and, on the second time up the Mammolshainer with 47km to go, he succeeded in doing so.
All this came just three weeks since he was thinking himself lucky to be alive after being hit by a car while out training near his home in Switzerland.
The German, who is nicknamed ‘der Panzerwagen’ managed to hold off the splintered peloton – led by a hard chase from the Argos-Shimano team – for some time, and it almost looked as though he was going to replicate the feat of Belgian teammate Tom Boonen in Paris-Roubaix. The three-man group of Dominique Nerz and Moreno Moser (both Liquigas-Cannondale), and Sergey Firsanov (RusVelo) managed to bridge across to him however, and Moser managed to use the Italian team’s numerical superiority to escape in the final kilometre and win.
A clearly exhausted Martin had to settle for fourth, as his two other companions managed to beat him at the finish, but the German’s smile was almost as big as Moser’s as he crossed the line.
“I’m super happy with my race today” Martin said, with that big smile still on his face. “Today it wasn’t about winning the race but seeing where I am, and, to be honest, I’m a little bit surprised about my performance. It means that I didn’t lose too much after the crash, a perfect signal for the upcoming races.
“In the beginning I was a little bit scared, nervous,” he explained. “Kilometre after kilometre I felt more confident and then it was just a normal race. In the final kilometres I tried to attack. I knew that everybody was waiting for the last climb during the last lap of the circuit. That’s why I tried to anticipate and to attack in the second to last climb. At the top I was alone, and at that time I did my race. It was a super sensation riding in the front again. In the final I had no legs but it was normal, it was my first race after four weeks. It was pretty hard in the last hour of racing, you can believe me!”
In addition what he had put on himself to see how good his form was, Martin had more pressure than usual in the German race. His mother was stationed on the Mammolshainer, complete with a TV crew to watch the reactions to her son’s efforts, while the TV moto was so interested in watching him as he sat near the front of the peloton that it threatened to obstruct the Cofidis team, which was chasing at the time.
With no German speakers on the French team, Lampre-ISD’s Danilo Hondo – riding for the German National Team – took it upon himself to come forward and break the language barrier; shouting and remonstrating with the moto pilot until he moved away.
Despite all this, Martin is very pleased with his comeback from racing, and looking forward to his next competition.
“Today I had fun,” he said. “It was nice to race in front of an amazing public who supported me all the time. Even my mother and my friends were here today, on the climb where I attacked. Now I will focus again on training to prepare the next races but with more trust than before.”
With his racing schedule changed since the accident, which forced him to miss last week’s Tour de Romandie, it has not yet been decided where, or when, those next races will be.