123 riders went in the final time trial of the race in Genk with Rabobank's Maarten Tjallangii who finished the 16.5km in a time of 20.30 taking the early lead.
At the half-way stage, HTC Colombia's Tony Martin (pictured below), the race leader, resplendent in his white leaders jersey, was the fast man on the course by six seconds of the time set by Alex Ramussen.
Rabobank's Koos Moerenhout, who started the day second, some eleven seconds down was the only man who could catch Martin, after Team Sky's Edvald Boasson-Hagen finshed in sixth on the day which was enough to cement a third place in the general classification. Moerenhout, who retires at the end of this season finished fifth.
This meant that all Martin had to do was to keep going to win. It was a superb ride and he finished in a time of 20.24.09 to win the stage and the race by 31 seconds from Moerenhout.
"This was incredible for me and my team," said to Martin, who will ride The Tour Of Britain and the World Championships to Eurosport.
"Winning the last time trial is a truly perfect way of ending the race, and it will keep me really motivated for the final part of the year," Martin said to his team's press off. "It's a great feeling to have taken such an important win, and I'm now on track for my next few targets."
"I'll ease back a little bit now, and then start my final build-up for the World Championships Time Trial in Australia with a ride in the Tour of Britain. I can't say what will happen in the World Championships, and it'll be hard to beat [defending champion] Fabian Cancellara, but I've been working hard on my time trialling and we'll see how it goes."
"What impressed me the most about Tony was how he turned around after the Tour de France and came back to do so well here," added HTC-Columbia sports director Brian Holm. "We talked about his ambitions and didn't know whether he would be so good, but once he got in the break where he took the lead, we knew he had a chance. However, for sure we didn't take anything for granted."
"One stage went over part of the Amstel Gold race course, another used part of Fleche Wallone and then today we knew Moerenhout is a strong time triallist so we went all out right to the very end."
Picture copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM