Tony Martin claimed an overall victory at the Tour of Belgium 2012
Tony Martin of Team Omega Pharma-Quickstep secured an overall victory at the Tour of Belgium 2012.
He succeeded during the individual time trial stage 4 of the race and strengthened his overall lead at the Belgian race.
The cyclist is having a tremendous season and has already filled his bag with numerous victories.
He finished second during the Volta ao Algarve and the occupied the fifth overall position at the Tour of the Basque Country 2012.
Martin finished the five-staged race in a total time of 16 hours, 51 minutes and 28 seconds and received the honours.
He overcame Lieuwe Westra of Team Vacansoleil-DCM with an impressive lead of 43 seconds while Carlos Barredo Llamazales of Team Rabobank, Sergey Firsanov of Team RusVelo and Andriy Reda of Team Acqua and Sapone finishing at the next four spots.
Tony was delighted after the stage victory and thanked his team-mates for their continuous support throughout the event.
He noted, “The whole stage was pretty hard, like expected, the profile, I think it was 16 climbs, really hard climbs from the Ardennes Classics, so we knew it would be a hard stage”.
We controlled the race right from the beginning, and then in the final I took the risk to stay in front, so that the gap in front couldn't get far away”.
It was really hard, but I have to say thank you to the whole team. The whole week they always protected me. I am happy for this team that we could win this race here".
The 27-year-old started his professional pursuit with Team High Road in 2008 and spent a period of four years with the side.
The American team announced its demise due to lack of sponsor by the end of 2011 season and the German had to find a new home to continue his professional pursuit
He accepted an offer from Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step in 2012 and has been a big help for the side during the first part of the season.
It will be interesting to see if Martin continues his winning momentum for the coming races of the 2012 season.
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