Tony Martin (Germany) completed his hat-trick of individual world time trial championship titles with an emphatic display in Florence, Italy.

The German secured his third straight rainbow jersey in a time of 1:05:36.65, setting the fastest times through except the first intermediate time check.

British Olympic time trial champion Bradley Wiggins took silver medal, losing 46 seconds to Martin, who was in a league of his own throughout the day. Four-time world champion Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) had to seek comfort in the fact that he finished on the podium, a further two seconds back on Wiggins after the British rider overhauled what had at one point been a 24-second deficit to the Swiss rider.

Last year's silver medallist Taylor Phinney (United States of America) had to accept fifth, with Vasil Kiryienka, third in 2012, claiming fourth.

Fabian Cancellara took an early, albeit slender, lead and looked likely to threaten Martin, but after the first intermediate time check the reigning world champion closed the gap on his predecessor and subsequently overhauled him. From then on Martin turned the event into a spell-binding one-man show as he ground the opposition into dust.

Meanwhile Bradley Wiggins got off to a rather slow start and at one point his place on the podium looked to be in jeopardy as Wiggins trailed the leading duo by more than half a minute and could feel Kiryienka’s breath down his neck. It turned out, however, that Wiggins had timed his efforts to near perfection, whereas Cancellara ran out of a bit of steam in the run-in to Florence and saw himself bested by Wiggins.

Honorary mention must also go to Danish debutant Rasmus Quaade who clocked impressive times throughout, had to deal with a puncture but still managed to finish 6th after a display of raw talent that bodes well for his future as a time trialist.

Nobody came close to Martin on the day, though, and at only 28 the German seems destined to rule this discipline for years to come.

UCI World time trial Championship full results:

1 Tony Martin - Tyskland 1.05.36,65
2 Bradley Wiggins - Storbritannien 1.06.22,74
3 Fabian Cancellara - Schweiz 1.06.24,99
4 Vasil Kiryienka - Hviderusland 1.07.02,66
5 Taylor Phinney - USA 1.07.44,65
6 Rasmus Quaade - Danmark 1.08.12,98
7 Marco Pinotti - Italien 1.08.18,57
8 Adriano Malori - Italien 1.08.27,72
9 Gustav Larsson - Sverige 1.08.35,12
10 Kanstantsin Siutsou - Hviderusland 1.08.36,19
11 Jan Barta - Tjekkiet 1.08.43,65
12 Rohan Dennis - Australien 1.08.45,98
13 Nicolas Roche - Irland 1.08.50,00
14 Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas - Spanien 1.08.50,43
15 Nelson Filipe Oliveira - Portugal 1.08.51,08
16 Kristof Vandewalle - Belgien 1.08.53,80
17 Richie Porte - Australien 1.08.59,47
18 Vladimir Gusev - Rusland 1.09.05,11
19 Dmitriy Gruzdev - Kasakhstan 1.09.12,60
20 Bert Grabsch - Tyskland 1.09.17,66
21 Jesse Sergent - New Zealand 1.09.22,56
22 Sylvain Chavanel - Frankrig 1.09.25,06
23 Aleksejs Saramotins - Letland 1.09.32,97
24 Michal Kwiatkowski - Polen 1.09.35,72
25 Niki Terpstra - Holland 1.09.37,48
26 Carlos Ivan Oyarzun Guinez - Chile 1.09.43,10
27 Lieuwe Westra - Holland 1.09.43,19
28 Maciej Bodnar - Polen 1.09.54,85
29 Jeremy Roy - Frankrig 1.10.03,86
30 Riccardo Zoidl - Østrig 1.10.16,22
31 Serghei Tvetcov - Moldova 1.10.23,98
32 Ignatas Konovalovas - Litauen 1.10.26,45
33 Bob Jungels - Luxembourg 1.10.35,22
34 Nikolay Mihaylov - Bulgarien 1.10.35,75
35 Luis Leon Sanchez Gil - Spanien 1.10.41,43
36 Tobias Ludvigsson - Sverige 1.10.43,77
37 Matthias Brandle - Østrig 1.10.47,77
38 Patrick Gretsch - Tyskland 1.10.50,88
39 Tiago Machado - Portugal 1.11.05,28
40 Ilnur Zakarin - Rusland 1.11.11,02
41 Alex Dowsett - Storbritannien 1.11.23,88
42 Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg - Sydafrika 1.11.29,39
43 Alex Rasmussen - Danmark 1.11.33,56
44 Ioannis Tamouridis - Grækenland 1.11.36,65
45 Andriy Vasylyuk - Ukraine 1.11.41,10
46 Andrew Talansky - USA 1.11.41,84
47 Matej Jurco - Slovakiet 1.11.51,96
48 Alexey Lutsenko - Kasakhstan 1.11.55,69
49 Hyeongmin Choe - Sydkorea 1.11.55,69
50 Thomas De Gendt - Belgien 1.12.02,13
51 Kristijan Koren - Slovenien 1.12.02,20
52 Reto Hollenstein - Schweiz 1.12.02,77
53 Rafaa Chtioui - Tunesien 1.12.07,51
54 Gert Joeaar - Estland 1.12.25,79
55 Daniel Teklehaymanot - Eritrea 1.12.25,93
56 Jay Robert Thomson - Sydafrika 1.12.29,53
57 Sam Bewley - New Zealand 1.12.36,67
58 King Lok Cheung - Hong Kong 1.12.38,22
59 Uri Martins - Mexico 1.12.59,98
60 Leandro Messineo - Argentina 1.12.59,98
61 Gediminas Bagdonas - Litauen 1.13.14,95
62 Herbert Mugwanya - Uganda 1.13.21,27
63 Mykhaylo Kononenko - Ukraine 1.13.23,51
64 Muradjan Halmuratov - Usbekistan 1.13.28,39
65 Spas Gyurov - Bulgarien 1.13.33,64
66 Samuel Pokala - Finland 1.13.47,95
67 Elchin Asadov - Aserbajdsjan 1.13.58,04
68 Andrei Nechita - Rumænien 1.14.07,42
69 Rafael Infantino Abreu - Colombia 1.14.51,48
70 David Albos Cavaliere - Andorra 1.15.16,75
71 Meron Russom - Eritrea 1.15.18,23
72 Jose Ragonessi - Ecuador 1.15.20,40
73 Segundo Navarrete - Ecuador 1.15.28,14
74 Zhupa Eugert - Albanien 1.15.31,22
75 Jiyong Kang - Sydkorea 1.16.36,17
76 Ahmed Elbourdainy - Qatar 1.17.48,35
77 Gustavo Mino - Paraguay 1.20.49,86
78 Nazir Jaser - Syrien 1.20.51,05