Double success for Martin in Tour of Belgium

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World time trial champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) continued his undefeated streak in races against the clock this season, winning the 15km third stage of the Tour of Belgium by a whopping 40 seconds over Argos-Shimano's Tom Dumoulin. A pair of RusVelo riders, Artem Ovechkin and Alexander Serov and RadioShack's Ben Hermans rounded out the top five.

The stage victory puts Martin into the overall race lead over Dumoulin with the same gap, unseating yesterday's race leader Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol). Omega Pharma's Tom Boonen moved down to third overall from second, ahead of two other teammates Kristof Vandewalle and Niki Terpstra.

Rainy weather impacted some of the later starters, but Martin didn't seem fazed, and blasted through the 15km course in Beveren in typical breakneck fashion. "I don't know what the conditions for the others were, but I had wet roads," Martin said. "I had to slow down a bit in the corners but also take a few risks. So, I'm really amazed that I'm in the lead and also with a big gap. I hope it stays now like this until the end. It would be really great for me and the team."

With two stages remaining, a repeat victory for Martin is looking plausible.

"The roads are really hard in the last two days, especially the last day. So, I think it will be much more work than last year. But we have a very strong team as you can see by all the riders we have in the top five GC and top 10 stage classifications. So, we will do our best to protect the race lead with a great group."

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