Tour de France: Martin wins stage 11 time trial

Tony Martin showed that he has recovered from injuries suffered earlier in the Tour de France, winning the stage 11 time trial. The reigning World time trial champion crossed the finish line at the world-famous Mount-Saint-Michel in a time of 36:29. Second on the 33km course was yellow jersey Chris Froome (Sky), a mere 12 seconds down, with Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) a surprising third at 1:01.

The time trial had a dramatic ending, as Froome, the last rider to take the course, broke Martin's times at both intermediate time checks. The German looked on nervously, fearing he'd be unseated as stage winner, but Froome lost over 14 seconds to the German on the closing 11km of the course.

"I had a terrible last 30 minutes," Martin said after finally being declared the winner following a four-hour stint in the hot seat. "I didn't expect him to come so close. I'm happy he lost some seconds in the finale. It doesn't matter if you win by one second or one minute but it's great to win for me," Martin said.

"For sure the stage suits me better than him but we saw he has incredible power on the climbs, too."

Martin finished the stage in obvious pain, the wounds on his body from the stage 1 crash still weeping through the bandages and onto the white shorts of his world champion's kit.

"I think I was OK today but it takes time to recovery. I spent an hour an day changing my bandages and had pain at night, so it was hard to recover."

Gaps in the GC widen

Chris Froome (Sky) not only easily maintained his overall lead, but increased it. He now leads Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in second place by 3:25 and Bauke Mollema in third at 3:37.

"I'm really happy with that result. Tony did a fantastic ride to win the stage deserves it. He's the current world time trial champion and it's his speciality. I'm happy with second place and to have extended my lead on my GC rivals," he said after pulling on the yellow jersey yet again.

"There was a strong head wind and I was struggling to turn my legs in the final two kilometres."

"The time I've gained gives me a good buffer but I think I'll need every second I can get the way these guys are riding."

Cadel Evans (BMC) had to finally bid adieu to his hopes of a high place in the overall, as he lost two and a half minutes. Andy Schleck (RadioShack-Leopard) was in the same position, as he put in his usual time trial performance, not evening finishing in the top 100, some 4:44 down.

Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) kept his losses to just over two minutes to Froome, setting up a tight battle for the podium. He stands in fourth, 17 seconds behind Mollema, with his teammate Roman Kreuziger three seconds further behind in fifth, and Laurens ten Dam (Belkin) in sixth at 4:10.

Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) put in a strong ride to take over the lead in the young rider classification. He was fifth on the stage at 1:51 from Martin, and now leads Movistar's Nairo Quintana by 34 seconds.

The wind played a role on the day's happenings. It changed directions as the riders went around the course, and picked up as the afternoon went on.

Martin covered the course with an average speed of 54.271 km/h. It was surprisingly only his second Tour stage win, as he won the time trial in the penultimate stage of the 2011 Tour. In 2012 he punctured in both the prologue and stage 9 time trial, before abandoning the race a few days later with an injury.

How it unfolded

Svein Tuft was the second rider to go and the first to cross the finish line. The Canadian riding for Orica-GreenEdge covered the 33km in a time of 38:04, giving himself a comfortable lead and a long visit to the hot seat.

The first to bump him down was Thomas de Gendt of Vacansoleil-DCM, who was 34 seconds faster, but he had a very short visit atop the leader board, as the very next rider in was Tony Martin. The World Champion sailed through the course with a time of 36:29, which was 1:01 faster than the Belgian.

An ugly incident marred the stage, as a fan threw a cup on urine on Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) during the stage. The action was presumably in response to an incident in Tuesday's stage in which Tom Veelers (Argos-Shimano) crashed after colliding with Cavendish.

Sky's Richie Porte looked to have recovered from his weak performance on Sunday where he lost more than 18 minutes. The Australian finished in a time of 37:30 and fourth place on the stage at the end of the day.

The top names and GC favourites finally took to the course, and one by one they all put in the more or less expected performances. Andy Schleck was slow all the way, while Cadel Evans failed to make up any ground on his rivals, conceding another 2:18 to Froome.

The surprise of the day was the high placing of Cannondale's Peter Sagan, not a notable time trialist, but motivated to distance his green jersey competitors further, he nearly cracked the top 15, but fell three seconds short of gaining a point.

The drama picked up with the final rider, Froome. He blasted his way along the course, breaking Martin's best time by one second at the first time check, and two seconds at the second time check. But the German had put in the best time in the final third of the course, and Froome was finally unable to hold up, and lost over 14 seconds, to claim second place.

It was, of course, still enough to increase his overall lead, as he goes into the second half of the Tour with more than three minutes on his nearest rivals.

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