Martin, born in Birmingham in England but who represents Ireland, quickened his pace in the final kilometre of the race to cross the line two seconds ahead of two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador of Spain, riding for the Tinkoff outfit.

The 29-year-old powered past the likes of Movistar’s Spanish rider Nairo Quintana on his way to finishing the third stage of the race in a time of 5 hours 00min 27sec.

Contador was forced to settle for second andnow sits in second place on the standings in the International Cycling Union World Tour race, six seconds adrift of Martin, who timed his late attack perfectly to secure a vital win.

Frenchman Romain Bardet did enough for third, with the Ag2r La Mondiale competitor sitting just behind Contador on the overall leaderboard.

It proved to be a disappointing outing for Cofidis’ Nacer Bouhanni, the Frenchman who had reigned supreme in the first two stages of this year’s race, as he was forced to drop early on due to illness.

Dutchman Tom Dumoulin of the Giant-Alpecin side also abandoned the race.

Britain’s Chris Froome, last year’s Tour de France winner, could only muster eighth, despite being one of the leading pack for the majority of the stage.

The mountainous stage took a while to get going before a group of seven riders launched an early breakaway and the rest were happy to let them establish a 12-minute lead.

Team Sky then responded before Colombian Jarlinson Pantano of the IAM Cycling team decided to attack from the peloton.

The group remained in a solid pattern for the majority of the race until several riders considered attacks four kilometres from the finish, though Belgium's Louis Vervaeke of the Lotto-Soudal team attempted to go slightly earlier.

Contador, Quintana and Team Sky’s Australian rider Richie Porte all launched assaults at the lead but neither paid off as Martin went to the front on the final climb and held on for a superb victory.

The riders are due to go up against the Queen Stage tomorrow - a 172km journey from Bagà to Port Ainé.