"My first half marathon ever... Really fun, but incredibly tough and painful" - Tony Martin becomes latest star to post impressive running time

Tony Martin has tested himself in competition for the first time since hanging up his wheels at the end of the 2021 season, and the four-time world time trial champion wasted no time in showing that the famous “Panzerwagen” engine is still very much intact.

The German, formerly of teams such as Jumbo-Visma, Katusha and Quick-Step posted a debut half marathon time of 1:24:00, revealing the news on Facebook alongside a typically honest reflection on the effort.

“My first competition in four years and my first half marathon ever. 21 km in 1:24h… not bad for me, but so far from the top,” Martin wrote. He added that the run was “really fun, but it was also incredibly tough and painful”, admitting the experience gave him “so much more respect for the performance of runners and triathletes”.

The 40-year-old German, remembered as one of the most dominant TT specialists of his generation with four rainbow jerseys and seven Grand Tour stage victories, was never built like a natural runner. At his peak, Martin was a powerful rouleur capable of huge sustained wattage, not someone optimised for the impact and efficiency demands of running. All of which makes his debut time more impressive than the raw number suggests.

Post-retirement running has quietly become a trend among ex-professionals, and Martin is far from the only rider discovering that elite cycling fitness only gets you so far once you ditch the pedals.

Tom Dumoulin set the bar highest when he stunned the Amsterdam Marathon with a 2:29:21 debut and had already produced a 1:10:04 half marathon. His lighter frame and climbing-TT physiology translated cleanly to running, though even he described the marathon as brutal.

In that context, Martin’s 1:24 sits in a very respectable range. It reflects both his enormous aerobic base and the biomechanical reality facing a retired athlete whose body spent a career absorbing almost no impact. For a first attempt, and after four years without competitive racing of any kind, his run confirms that his engine remains world-class.

Martin closed his update by confirming he has already caught the bug: “Next year I’ll be back to improve my time.”

Given the progression curve typically seen when cyclists add structure, technique and mileage to their running, a move towards sub-1:20 seems plausible. And as more riders from his generation embrace running — whether casually or competitively — Martin’s effort adds another chapter to a growing post-cycling storyline.

For now, it’s simply good to see one of the most respected professionals of the 2010s back with a race number on, discovering a new kind of suffering… and clearly enjoying it.