The 101st Tour De France has been absolutely full of surprises but it comes as no surprise that World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin won the Time Trial, which was the 20th stage..
The only time trial in this race was on a 54km hilly course from Bergerac to Périgueux.
"Lanterne Rouge" Ji Cheng of Giant Shimano, was the first rider to start, at 10.51 local time. He was caught by Davide Cimolai of Lampre who had started two minutes behind him with thirteen kilometres to go.
The Italian finished in 1.15.17 to set the first best time with Ji Cheng finishing in 1.18.32.
The time of Cimolai's was soon beaten with Arnuad Demare of FDJ and Petit of Cofidis going quicker in 1.11.46.
Team Sky's Danny Pate set the new fastest time of 1.09.22 with an 22. average speed of 46.70km/h.
With seventy riders of the 164 having started, Pate was still in the lead and lead lasted until Net App's Jen Barta finished in 1.08:08.
World Time Trial champion Tony Martin of Omega Pharma Quick Step, who was seen by all the riders as the man to beat, set off down the ramp and was soon powering down the road.
The German was fastest at the first check point by 35 seconds and at 39kms, had passed two riders who had started at two minute intervals ahead of him and flew past the second check point in a time of 48:03.
Martin continued and he finshed to set a time of 1:06:21 with an average speed of 48.8 km/h.
The next twenty seven riders failed to get near Martin's time although Tom Dumoulin did finished in a time of 1.08.00 to go second so attention turned to the three riders currently on the podium.
Thibaut Pinot (Fdj.fr) started the Time Trial in second place on the General Classification, thirteen seconds ahead of fellow Frenchman Jean-Christophe Péraud of AG2R and over seven minutes behind the yellow skin suited Vincenzo Nibali.
Peraud raced his heart out and was in tears as he crossed the finish line in 1:08:48. Pinot could only finish in 1:09:33 and looked dejected as he dropped to third place in the General Classification.
Nibali showed why he is a very worthy winner of the 2014 Tour De France and he finished in 1:08:19 to finish the stage fourth behind Martin, who was delighted with his victory.
Stage Result
| 1 | Tony Martin Omega Pharma-Quick Step | 1:06:21 | |
| 2 | Tom Dumoulin Giant-Shimano | +1:39 | |
| 3 | Jan Barta Team Netapp-Endura | +1:47 | |
| 4 | Vincenzo Nibali Astana Pro Team | +1:58 | |
| 5 | Leopold Konig Team Netapp-Endura | +2:02 | |
| 6 | Tejay Van Garderen BMC Racing Team | +2:08 | |
| 7 | Jean-Christophe Péraud AG2R La Mondiale | +2:27 | |
| 8 | Sylvain Chavanel IAM Cycling | +2:36 | |
| 9 | Markel Irizar Arranburu Trek Factory Racing | +2:39 | |
| 10 | Daniel Oss BMC Racing Team | +2:58 |