As expected Fabian Cancellara may have company on top of the time trialing world, because Tony Martin just keeps getting better and better. The young German superstar capped off an impressive first race of the season by blasting past race leader Steve Cummings and Alberto Contador on his way to a stage 5 ITT victory and the Volta Ao Algarve title.Martin only had 5 seconds over Lieuwe Westra (who had an impressive ride himself to move into 3rd overall), but had an easy 25 sec or more over everybody else. His ITT form looked like it hadn't skipped a beat in the off season, and that may be a threat to Cancellara in many of this year's major time trials.
2010 TdF champ Alberto Contador (who is in fine climbing form already) is usually a fine time trialist himself, but he still has a bit of work to do on his form. He could manage only 15th, and lost 45 seconds as well as his place on the podium. Steve Cummings had an even worse day, as he dropped over a minute and also dropped off the podium.
That opened the door for Tejay Van Garderen to sneak into 2nd overall. Tejay already has quite a bit of experience with finishing 2nd this year, but I'm sure he'll take the result being that he never really expected to compete with teammate Martin on the ITT. Westra's impressive ride brought him all the way up to 3rd.
This is an early statement win for Martin, who looked impressive in both the flats and the mountains. He and Van Garderen will probably lead HTC in their fair share of events this year, and both of them look like they are ready to make some serious noise on the larger stages.
Stage Results1. Tony Martin
2. Lieuwe Westra
3. Tiago Machado
Final Podium
1. Tony Martin
2. Tejay Van Garderen
3. Lieuwe Westra
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