Germany's gold medallist Tony Martin (C), Belarus' silver medallist Vasil Kiryienka (L) and Spain's bronze medallist Jonathan Castroviejo celebrate on the podium at the end of the men's elite individual time trial event as part of the 2016 UCI Road World
Doha: Germany's Tony Martin won the men's time-trial title in Qatar on Wednesday for a record-equalling fourth time.
Martin obliterated the field, winning by 45 seconds from last year's champion Vasil Kiryienka of Belarus, with Spain's Jonathan Castroviejo a further 25sec back in third.
Martin previously won the title in 2011, 2012 and 2013, and joins Fabian Cancellara as the only four-time winners of the event.
One of the pre-race favourites, Tom Dumoulin, the Olympic silver-medallist, finished way back in 11th place.
The race was surprisingly led for a long time by Ireland's Ryan Mullen, who eventually finished fifth.
It is the second time this week Martin has taken gold, having also triumphed in the team time-trial in his last race for his Etixx-Quick Step outfit.
"It's amazing, I can't believe it," said Martin afterwards.
"Everybody knows that I haven't had a good year.
"But this makes everything OK -- the course was made for me. The only thing I was scared for was the heat."
The 40km race began in temperatures of 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit).
