Tony Martin of Omega Pharma Quick Step won the second stage of the 54th Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco (Basque Tour).
Omega Pharma Quick Step's Tony Martin, Gorka Izaguirre of Movistar, Hubert Dupont of AG2R, Bob Jungels of Trek, Davide Malacarne of Europcar,Jan Bakelants of Omega Pharma Quick Step and Maxime Monfort of Lotto got into the early break on a 155.8km stage from Ordizia to Dantxarinea (Urdazubi) which had Alberto Contador leading the race by thirteen seconds.
Lieuwe Westra and Carlos Betancur, two riders tipped to do well in this mountainous race, had both abandoned by the time, the escapers had reached the 62km mark with a lead of 2.15.
With 56kms to go on a day of temperatures of fifteen degrees, the seven were 2.27 clear as the riders took on the 4.5% Alto de Lizaieta.
Fifteen kilometres later and there was a crash with Ben King of Garmin Sharp and Matty Busche of Trek Factory Racing involved.
Team Sky took to the front of the peloton and upped the pace in order to bring down the lead that the seven riders still had.
This effort saw the gap come down to 1.30 with 25kms to go and down to a minute. With 11,5kms to go, Tony Martin decided it was time to go on his own and the German World Time Trial Champion shot off.
Riding at 52km/h, Martin started to increase his lead over the peloton which was strung out down the road behind Philippe Gilbert of BMC.
On a wide open road, Martin surged to a brilliant victory in 3.46.17 in the Urdazubi village, which has been around since the fifteenth century.
Team Sky's Ben Swift was second with Martin's team mate Michal Kwiatkowski third, followed by Cunego, Martens, Valverde, Iglinskiy 8 Arashiro 9 Matthews 10 Nocentini.
Martin said after the stage: "I am pleased with my first victory. It was a good feeling to win a hard stage in the Basque Tour."
Picture copyright of Covsupport News Service.