Tony Hans-Joachim Martin (born 23 April 1985) is a German former professional road bicycle racer. Martin was known as a time trial specialist, and is a four-time world champion in the discipline – having won the title in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016 – which is joint-most with Fabian Cancellara. He also won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, finishing runner-up to Bradley Wiggins in the event. Martin was also part of four world championship-winning team time trial squads, with /, in 2012, 2013 and 2016, and with Germany in the mixed relay time-trial in 2021. Martin won seven Grand Tour stages, including five individual time trial stages – three at the Tour de France in 2011, 2013 and 2014, and two at the Vuelta a España in 2011 and in 2014. In the mid-part of his career Martin was a successful stage racer, winning the Eneco Tour (2010), Paris–Nice (2011) and the first two editions of the Tour of Beijing in 2011 and 2012. In the latter part of his career he became a super-domestique and road captain at.

Early life

Born in Cottbus, East Germany, Martin and the rest of his family escaped from East Germany shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communist Eastern Europe. Later, he returned to the eastern part of Germany to attend sport school in Erfurt.

Career

Team High Road (2008–11)

2008

Having turned professional for the 2008 season, Martin took four victories during the year – he won the Hel van het Mergelland one-day race, as well as time trial stages at the Ster Elektrotoer, the Tour de l'Ain, and the Deutschland Tour. He also placed second to his teammate Marco Pinotti on the final time trial stage of the Giro d'Italia – his first start in a Grand Tour – and finished seventh in the time trial at the UCI Road World Championships.

2009

In 2009, Martin won time trials in the Critérium International, and the Bayern Rundfahrt. He also featured strongly in week-long stage races, winning the mountain classifications at Paris–Nice, and the Tour de Suisse, finishing second overall and winning a stage in the latter. Martin also made an impact at the Tour de France, wearing the white jersey as leader of the young rider classification for twelve days (between stages 3 and 14), and winning the combativity award after finishing second on Stage 20 at the top of Mont Ventoux. He took the bronze medal in the time trial at the UCI Road World Championships at the end of the season.

2010

Martin enjoyed more success in time trials in 2010, winning his first national championship title as well as stages in the Tour of California, and the Tour de Suisse. Martin finished second in the prologue and the Stage 19 individual time trial – behind Fabian Cancellara on both occasions – of the Tour de France, and again wore the white jersey as leader of the young rider classification on stages 1 to 3. Following the Tour de France, Martin finished first overall in the Eneco Tour, as well as the seventh stage time trial and the young rider classification. Martin again took the bronze medal at the time trial at the UCI Road World Championships.

2011

2011 saw Martin claim overall victories in the Volta ao Algarve, and Paris–Nice, having won time trials in both events. He also finished second overall in the Tour de Romandie, and won the time trial in the Critérium du Dauphiné. Martin won his first Grand Tour stage by taking victory in the Stage 20 individual time trial of the Tour de France. He also won the stage 10 time trial in the Vuelta a España. In September, Martin won the gold medal in the time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. He then won the opening time trial of the inaugural Tour of Beijing, and held the race lead for the rest of the event to claim overall victory.

Omega Pharma–Quick-Step (2012–16)

Following the announcement that would fold at the end of 2011, Martin signed with for the 2012 season.

2012

Martin began 2012 with second overall in the Volta ao Algarve, finishing second to Bradley Wiggins by less than a second in the final time trial. In April, Martin lost consciousness after colliding with a car during training and sustained injuries, wrecking his early season. Martin returned to action at the Tour of Belgium in May, winning the time trial on Stage 4 and taking the overall victory. At the Tour de France, Martin's hopes of winning the prologue, were dashed by a mechanical problem that forced him to switch bikes on course. Martin then crashed the following day on Stage 1, suffering a broken wrist. After suffering more mechanical problems in the next time trial, Stage 9, he withdrew from the competition so that his wrist would have more time to heal before the time trial at the Olympic Games three weeks later. Martin was deemed fit enough to compete, and he claimed silver at the Olympics behind Wiggins. In September, Martin was part of the six-man team that won the inaugural team time trial for trade teams at the UCI Road World Championships. Three days later, he successfully defended his individual world title, beating Taylor Phinney by five seconds and passing Alberto Contador on course. In October, Martin went back to China to attempt to defend his Tour of Beijing title at the last UCI World Tour race of the season. He placed well in all the stages, but his overall win was attributed in large part to a solo victory on stage 2. Martin attacked the lead group with 25 km remaining, on the climb of the Dong Gang Hong Tunnel, and sped away to win by around 45 seconds to record his first road stage win since the 2009 Tour de Suisse.

2013

In February, Martin won the general classification of the Volta ao Algarve. He earned the leader's jersey on the fourth and last stage, a 34.8 km individual time trial, which he won by over a minute from the next closest competitor, team-mate Michał Kwiatkowski. In the overall classification, he bested Kwiatkowski and Lieuwe Westra of. In the Tour de France he was involved in a crash on the 1st stage which left him with a concussion and a contusion on his left lung. He recovered enough to win stage 11, an individual time trial. With an average speed of 54.271 km/h, Martin rode the third fastest Tour de France individual time trial stage at that time. In the sixth stage of Vuelta a España, Martin managed a 175 km solo breakaway, averaging 27.7 mph, which was only caught in the final metres of the stage. Martin then went on to help his team to narrowly beat in the team time trial at the UCI Road World Championships. He then emerged victorious once more in the individual time trial, beating second placed Bradley Wiggins by 46 seconds, who was a further two seconds ahead of four-time winner Fabian Cancellara. In the off season, Martin had surgery in Hamburg to resolve the scaphoid non-union resulting from his 2012 Tour de France stage 1 crash. The team said he would wear a special cast for six weeks which would allow him to resume training before the cast was removed.

2014

On 1 June, he claimed his third consecutive Tour of Belgium and set a new record in doing so, surpassing 9 other riders who had managed to win the race two times. Martin then won the two time trials of the Tour de Suisse, finishing fourth overall after limiting his losses in the mountains. On 13 July, Martin won his first mass start road stage of the Tour de France. He was in a breakaway for 155 km, the final 60 km in a solo effort to bring back memories of his Vuelta effort in 2013. This time Martin won the stage and was able to begin his celebrations some distance before the line. He topped his Tour off by winning the 20th stage time trial by a margin of 1 minute 39 seconds over his nearest rival. He went on to take another Grand Tour stage win at the Vuelta a España, clinching the individual time trial on stage 10. However he missed out on victory in the time trials at the UCI Road World Championships, taking the bronze medal alongside his teammates in the team event and the silver medal in the individual event, trailing Bradley Wiggins by 26 seconds.

2015

Martin had his first victory of the season in the individual time trial of the Volta ao Algarve. The second one came in May, at the Tour de Romandie, where he bettered Simon Špilak by eleven seconds in the rainy streets of Lausanne. At the end of June, he defended his German National Time Trial Championships title successfully. At the Tour de France, Martin finished second behind Rohan Dennis in the opening time trial in Utrecht. Martin looked set to take the yellow jersey on Stage 2 when Dennis was dropped when the peloton split in crosswinds, but Fabian Cancellara outsprinted Martin's teammate Mark Cavendish to take third on the stage, and jump ahead of Martin into first place due to time bonuses. On Stage 3, Cancellara was involved in a large accident and lost time, but Martin again missed out on taking the yellow jersey, as Chris Froome came home second at the finish on the Mur de Huy, and took the lead by one second over Martin due to the time bonus. On 7 July, Martin won Stage 4 after a short escape 3 km before the finish, taking the yellow jersey for the first time in his career. He was riding on a bike borrowed from teammate Matteo Trentin, having had mechanical problems earlier in the race, which featured 13 km of cobbles. On Stage 6, Martin crashed in the final kilometre on an uphill section while he was still in yellow and had to abandon the Tour because of a broken collarbone. One month later, Martin returned to racing; although he fell short in the individual time trial in stage 4, he gained time over his main competitors and eventually won the overall of the Tour du Poitou-Charentes, his first stage race win of the season. However he missed out on a World Championship gold for the second year running; finished second in the team time trial, 11 seconds behind the, and he struggled to seventh place in the individual event – his worst performance in the event since 2008, when he also finished seventh.

2016

Martin spent two days in the leader's jersey at the Volta ao Algarve in February, having finished second on the third stage – an individual time trial – before losing the lead on the final day. He finished fourth overall at March's Three Days of De Panne, again finishing second on an individual time trial stage. He took his first victory of the season, with his fifth consecutive victory (and sixth overall) in the German National Time Trial Championships in June. He won the individual time trial at the Tour of Britain, and finished his season with gold medals in both the team time trial and the individual time trial at the UCI Road World Championships.

Team Katusha–Alpecin (2017–18)

In August 2016, Martin signed a two-year contract with from the 2017 season. In his first start with the team at the 2017 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Martin took victory on the second stage with a 6 km solo move. He finished on the overall podium at the 2017 Tour of Belgium in third place, before winning the German National Time Trial Championships for the seventh time. He finished eighth overall at the 2017 Tour of Britain, before finishing ninth in the time trial at the 2017 UCI Road World Championships – his worst placing in the event – having criticised the inclusion of an uphill finish on Fløyen. Martin's lone victory of the 2018 season came with a seventh consecutive win in the German National Time Trial Championships.

Team Jumbo–Visma (2019–21)

Martin joined for the 2019 season, following two years at which he described as a "wasteland", and was primarily utilised as a domestique. He formed part of winning team time trial stage efforts at the UAE Tour and the Tour de France, either side of another German National Time Trial Championships victory. He was later disqualified from the Tour de France following an incident with rider Luke Rowe on stage 17, who was also disqualified from the race for his retaliation. At the UCI Road World Championships, Martin formed part of the German team that won a silver medal in the inaugural mixed team relay (consisting of three men and three women), which replaced the trade team time trial. After Martin failed to record any top-ten finishes during the 2020 season, which was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, he won the German National Time Trial Championships for its ninth consecutive edition in 2021, as the 2020 running was not held. At the Tour de France, Martin was involved in an incident with around 45 km remaining on the opening stage; leading the peloton, Martin impacted a cardboard sign that was being held by a spectator at the side of the road, and was one of many riders to fall to the ground. Martin later abandoned the race after a further crash on the eleventh stage, which resulted in him ending up in a ditch. The spectator that caused the stage 1 crash was later fined €1200 for her actions, in court in Brest. In September, Martin announced that he would retire following the UCI Road World Championships, as an after effect of his Tour de France crashes and additional safety concerns. In his final race, he helped the German team win the mixed team relay, 13 seconds ahead of the Dutch team.

Personal life

Martin is the father of two daughters. In 2022, Martin auctioned off his Olympic silver medal to raise money for children during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The winning bidder of the medal was a German supplements company, FitLine, who returned the medal to Martin.

Career achievements

Major results

Source:

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Major championships timeline

Awards