Tony Martin happy with his return after the training crash
Tony Martin of Team Omega Pharma-QuickStep crashed during a training ride on April 12th, 2012.
The cyclist received fractures on his jaw, eye socket and cheekbone and marked his return to professional cycling at the Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt on Tuesday.
Martin rode brilliantly during the 201.5 kilometre race but fell 5 seconds short of the race leader Moreno Moser of Team Liquigas-Cannondale.
Moreno crossed the finished line in a fastest time of 4 hours, 54 minutes and 15 seconds and occupied the top podium spot while Dominique Nerz of Team Liquigas-Cannondale achieved the second position.
Sergey Firsanov of Team Rusvelo finished third while Tony Martin of Team Omega Pharma-Quickstep finished at the fourth spot.
Andre Greipel of Team National Deutschland, Alexander Kristoff of Team Katusha and John Degenkolb of Team Argos-Shimano occupied the fifth, the sixth and the seventh positions in the respective order.
He was overwhelmed after the fourth place finish and told radsport-news.com,
“I had already felt pretty good in training the last few days, but I didn’t expect to do so well”.
“I was concentrated on Nerz’s rear wheel, I hadn’t expected that Moser would be the one to attack,” he said. “I thought he would lead out the sprint for Dominik”.
“This is my home race and I had a lot of support. My family was there, and I had a lot of friends and fans cheering for me”.
“It’s simply great fun to race here, and I’m delighted that I was able to be at the front”.
Martin has not registered any wins in the season yet.
He came close to victory at the Volta ao Algarve but could not match the likes of Richie Porte and had to settle for the second position.
The 27-year-old rode brilliantly during the Tour of the Basque Country and finished at the 5th overall position after a tough competition.
Tour de France has always been Martin’s favourite race and the 27-year-old is building up for the 2012 version of the French Grand Tour.
Tony has also shown interest towards riding the 2012 Olympic Games and has confirmed that he is on board for both the events.
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