HTC-Highroad rider enjoying a perfect start to his 2011 season
Tony Martin’s 2011 season has begun in just about the exact opposite fashion of 2010. An injury plagued first part of last year has been replaced with overall victory and time trial triumph at the Volta ao Algarve.
Arguably the second best time trialist in the world behind only Fabian Cancellara, Martin was unstoppable in the finale of the Volta ao Algarve this weekend. Following a great performance in the race’s mountaintop finish, overall victory looked to be his for the taking if he could manage to hold off another one of the world’s best riders against the clock, Alberto Contador. Martin had no problems with a sub-par Contador, who only days before the start of Algarve had escaped the hangman’s noose in his doping investigation.
Speaking with RadsportNews.com, the native of Cottbus admits that his ambitions for the race weren’t low heading into it, but the overall win wasn’t on his mind. That all changed following his great performance in the race’s crucial Stage 3 uphill finish.
“My own hope was a place amongst the top five. When I realized that I was going well on the mountaintop finish, I naturally started to think about the overall win with only a ten second time deficit.”
The young German talent enjoyed a sizzling 2009 campaign highlighted by a 2nd overall finish at the Tour de Suisse, and twelve days in the Maillot Blanc as best young rider at the Tour de France, capped off with a 2nd place finish atop the Mont Ventoux. 2010 was supposed to be a big year for the 25 year old, but the extremely hard working rider pushed his body a little bit too far, and wound up spending a significant amount of time on the sidelines. He still managed to come good for some solid results including time trial wins at the Eneco Tour (including the overall), the Tour of California, and the Tour de Suisse (6th overall), topped off with his second consecutive bronze medal at the World Championships.
In 2011, Martin appears to have gotten it right. The voracious trainer says he’s listening to his body and continuing to work hard – a combination that can’t help but yield big results. Considering a rider with the talent of Tony Martin, injury seems to be pretty much the only thing that could hold him back from continuing his progression toward the pinnacle of cycling.
“I haven’t changed my training much, but when I have slight muscle or knee problems, I take it easy. I listen more to my body now, and I’ve learned from my experiences.”
Looking beyond his early season success in Portugal, the HTC-Highroad rider will target a tough Paris-Nice next.
“After I won the mountains classification at Paris-Nice two years ago, and after having it not go as expected last year, I want to race for the general classification this year. My goal is a spot in the first five. If everything goes optimally, I could also make it on to the podium. Of course, it favors me that there is a longer time trial on the program.”
The favorably designed Paris-Nice route will without question suit Martin’s abilities. A podium finish seems a fair bit, and overall victory, though he won’t say it aloud, certainly more than a fanciful thought.
It wasn’t just the 2010 Eneco Tour overall winner who put on a fine display in Portugal this past week – a small army of Germans joined in to make it one of the best performances by the nation in quite some time.
Martin lists the results: “Degenkolb and Greipel won stages, Ciolek was second on a stage, Klöden was fifth overall.”
In the current acidic climate in Germany toward cycling, performances like those in Algarve will eventually help turn the tide – it just has to. The Junior, U23, and Elite German Time Trial champion is more than aware of his country’s cycling slump and urges the media to take note of the success in Portugal. Even more encouragingly, he feels there’s more to come in 2011.
“I hope that the German media takes note of this result. It is of course still early in the season, but from the good results here, I’m sure that one of us will win a big race this year.”