Team HTC-Highroad's Tony Martin blitzed the 47 km individual time trial in the 2011 Vuelta a Espana early this afternoon, winning by 59 seconds to second place Christopher Froome of Team Sky who moved into the overall Vuelta lead after a surprisingly strong performance. Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins finished 3rd ahead of Fabian Cancellara of Team Leopard-Trek and Taylor Phinney of Team BMC Racing.

With time trial victories in the Tour de France, the Paris-Nice, the Dauphine Libere, Vuelta al Pais Vasco and also the Tour of Algarve this season, Martin looks set to be a major threat at the road cycling World Championships in Copenhagen next month.

"He started very fast," Team HTC-HighRoad sports director Jan Schaffrath told Roadcycling.com when asked to comment on Martin's performance in today's time trial.

"At 13 kilometer at the first time split, he was 40 seconds in front of [Fabian] Cancellara. The next 20 kilometer the roads were narrow and a bit dead but he kept his pace so it was looking good."

"When we got nervous was at when the last twenty riders were on the course. The wind had changed so they had a tail wind at the beginning and the time splits were getting close. But, it turned out that they had a headwind home, so overall it was pretty much the same for everyone and he (Martin) was the strongest on the day."

The riders have a very long 330 kilometer transfer after today's time trial stage and then fortunately a rest day tomorrow before the Vuelta racing returns on Wednesday with a mountaneous stage to Manzaneda ski station.

In the Vuelta a Espana GC Christopher Froome leads Team Leopard-Trek's Jakob Fuglsang by 12 seconds. Bradley Wiggins is third, 20 seconds behind Froome and Team Liquigas-Cannondale's Vincenzo Nibali is 31 seconds back in the rankings.

Watch Vuelta a Espana video highlights from all stages of the 2011 Vuelta in our Roadcycling.com video section.