Tony Martin targets a repeat of last year's two gold medal-winning rides when he kicks off his world championships campaign in today's team time trial. The double world champion is confident that he is part of the strongest team in the race and that a repeat win is in store.

Last year Tony Martin had a hugely successful Worlds campaign when the German both defended his individual time trial title and won the inaugural edition of the world team time trial championships. This year the German has set his sights on a repeat of that performance and he beams of confidence ahead of today's collective event.

Martin will ride alongside Peter Velits, Niki Terpstra, Sylvain Chavanel, Kristof Vandewalle and Michal Kwiatkowski with the former 5 also being part of last year's winning performance. With such a collection of impressive time trialing talents, the Belgian team has been singled out as the big favourites on the very fast course in Florence and Martin beams of confidence ahead of the race.

"There's a good atmosphere, I think it's going to be a good Worlds," he told Cyclingnews yesterday. "I think BMC and Orica-GreenEdge are the big favourites along with us. We want to win for sure. For me we're the best team but we still have to keep in mind that other teams have worked hard to be successful here. We're not sure of winning but we're pretty confident."

While the course for the road race is very hilly, the time trials are of a different nature. The long, flat straights suit Martin better than almost anyone else and he can't hide his satisfaction.

"It's a really nice parcours. It's not really technical until the final two or three kilometres," he said. "But as soon as you hit the finale, it really gets tricky, especially in the old centre of the city. There are some narrow roads and some cobbles. When you're on your own, it's not a problem but with six guys it makes it tricky. You have to find a balance between taking some risks and not losing time."

Martin and his Omega Pharma-Quick Step team will be the final team down the ramp at 15.59 CEST. Starting at 14.00 CEST you can follow the race live on CyclingQuotes.com/live.