Tony Martin seals overall victory at the Eneco Tour

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Germany's Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) won the final time trial stage and the overall classification of the Eneco Tour, confirming he is one of the true rising talents of the sport and a possible threat to Fabian Cancellara in the time trial world championships in Australia next month.

Martin started last in the 16.5km time trial around Genk but came home fastest with a time of 20:24. The course twisted and turned around Genk and was dotted with speed bumps and technical corners but Martin handled them all at speed to win. He even had time to celebrate his success as he crossed the line.

Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank) was six seconds slower and early starter Alex Rasmussen (Saxo Bank) was third at nine seconds.

Koos Moerenhout (Rabobank) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) finished fifth and sixth to secure second and third overall respectively. The veteran Dutchman finished 31 seconds behind Martin after being in the decisive break of the race with him on stage three. Boasson Hagen finished third overall at 1:46.

The Eneco Tour was Martin's first ever ProTour stage race victory but will surely not be his last. His next goal will be the Tour of Britain before he targets the time trial at the world championships in Australia at the end of September.

"The week was incredible for me and for the team. We won 3 stages and overall. It was perfect," Martin said.

"I can' think of a better way to prepare for the world championships. I'm in such good shape already that it's a little difficult to decide what to do now. I’m going to train easy and then go to Tour of Britain. Then we’ll wee what happens at the worlds."

Koos Moerenhout gave his all in the time trial but admitted he knew it would have been difficult to beat Martin. However he was rightly proud of his performance as he comes to the end of his 15-year professional career.

“in last two years I've done good time trial at the Eneco Tour but it was always going to be difficult to win against Tony Martin. I went flat out and it went well but it wasn't enough," he said.

“I had super legs all race and so it was a pretty special race. I have to say a big thanks to team who hoped me a lot during race. There were a few nervous moments but it worked out well."

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