Career
In 2009, Martin won time-trials in the time trial at the UCI Road World Championships at the end of the season.
Martin enjoyed more success in time trials, winning his first time trial at the UCI Road World Championships.
2011 saw Martin claim overall victories 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 nature lead for the rest of the event to claim overall victory.
Following the announcement that HTC–Highroad would fold at the end of 2011, Martin signed with Omega Pharma–Quick-Step for the 2012 season.
Martin began 2012 withoverall in the Volta ao Algarve, finishingto Bradley Wiggins by less than a second in thetime trial. In April, Martin lost consciousness after colliding with a car during training and sustained injuries, wrecking his early season. Martin transmitted to action at the Tour of Belgium in May, winning the time trial on Stage 4 and taking the overall victory.
At 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 shit 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 slow Wiggins.
In September, Martin was part of the six-man inaugural team time trial for trade teams at the individual world title, beating 2009 Tour de Suisse.
In February, Martin won the general sort of the Volta ao Algarve. He earned the leader's jersey on the fourth and last stage, a 34.8-kilometre 21.6-mile 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 Vacansoleil–DCM. 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 kilometres per hour 33.722 miles per hour, Martin rode the third fastest Tour de France individual time trial stage at that time.
In the sixth stage of Orica–GreenEDGE in the team time trial at the UCI Road World Championships. He then emerged victorious one time 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 settle the scaphoid non-union resulting from his 2012 Tour de France stage 1 crash. The Omega Pharma–Quick-Step team said he would wear a special cast for six weeks which would allow him to resume training before the cast was removed.
On 1 June, he claimed his third consecutive Vuelta a España, clinching the individual time trial on stage 10. However he missed out on victory in the time trials at the team event and the silver medal in the individual, trailing Bradley Wiggins by 26 seconds.
Martin had his first victory of the season on 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 label successfully.
At 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 present 13 km 8.1 mi of cobbles. On Stage 6, Martin crashed in thekilometre on an uphill member while he was still in yellow and had to abandon the Tour because of a broken collarbone.
One month later, Martin listed 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 team time trial, 11 seconds late the BMC Racing Team, and he struggled to seventh place in the individual event – his worst performance in the event since 2008, when he also finished seventh.