Tony Martin: "I've invented a second time trial at the Tour"

"It's not better to win this way than a time trial but it's special. I already tried to do it at the Tour de France but I only came second at the Mont Ventoux [in 2009]. The difference between winning a time trial and a normal stage like today is that I had more time to enjoy it today. With three minutes lead, I knew I had the race in my hand. It was an incredible feeling. In time trials, I often have to wait for a long time to know if I had won or not. The Tour de France organizers had scheduled only one time trial this year, so I invented a second one. We all knew that a breakaway could work today. When we were together with Alessandro De Marchi, I told him he could take the mountain points. Then I was aware that 28 guys were thirty seconds behind us. I decided that it didn't matter what would happen, I'd better go full gas. I knew there would be a point at which they would give up. 50 or 60km of time trialling wasn't going to be a problem for me. I never had a lack of power. It was hard to ride solo but I never got out of my comfort zone. I have an excellent condition now. I'm really proud of what I achieved. We were close to the German border and I could hear so many German fans shouting my name on the road sides. It's been a great day. It's amazing that after only nine stages, five have been won by Germans but there are two more weeks to go and I hope for the best to come for German cycling. It's also going really well for our team. We've lost Mark Cavendish on day 1 but we never lost the morale. We've always remained active in the race and showed how strong we are as a team."