Saturday 12 June 2010 at 20h38

This afternoon the opening time trial of the Tour of Switzerland 2010 took place in Lugano. Last year's winner Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) took the very expected victory on this solitary effort in 10'21", 1 second ahead of Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) and 3 ahead of Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) and Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo).

The summary of the time trial of the Tour of Switzerland 2010

The first rider to take the start in this individual time trial was Pedro Merino Criado (Footon-Servetto) a few minutes after the time initially planned. The first riders to start still had dry roads and a timid sun.

The first reference time was for the Luxembourg rider Kim Kirchen (Katusha Team) with 10'38". He had to wait for Manuel Quinziato (Liquigas-Doimo) who takes 4 seconds on him and finally ends 8th in this time trial. About 30 riders later, Gustav-Erik Larsson (Team Saxo Bank) took over the best time with 10'32", which allowed him to finally finish 6th.

The first rider with a time under 10'30" was the young Slovakian rider Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo), the revelation of Paris-Nice 2010 who had a time of 10'24".

Despite the rain and a very threatening sky, the riders who started last end on the podium of the first stage, with Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia), the first of the 5 last riders to start, at the foot of the podium with the same time as Peter Sagan: 10'24". Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) improved this best time with 2 seconds by finishing just behind Oscar Pereiro (Astana) who left 1 minute before him and had a disappointing time of 11'20" which put him at the 127th place in this individual time trial.

We also note the disappointing performance of the Spanish rider Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha Team), forelast rider to start on this first stage who finally finished 20th at 10'41.

Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) kept his promisses: starting as the last rider for this time trial, the Swiss rider gave everything in this race, as he already announced a few weeks ago, to win it. He finished the stage with a sprint to improve Roman Kreuziger's time with only one second. Spartacus thus took his 5th victory in 2010 after the Tour of Oman, the Grand Prix E3, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

The comments from the winner Fabian Cancellara

In the press room, after the official ceremony, Fabian Cancellara declared: The two climbing kilometers were the most difficult: I know the region, but when I came here to discover the stage route I was surprised anyway to see that it was quite steep for a time trial specialist like me. We also had to take into account the descent and the technical route with its different bends, but I think I finally performed well and this victory is the result of it.

Concerning my place in the general classification, the 1 second time gap is not important: the most important for me was to wear this yellow jersey, as a Swiss rider in this Tour of Switzerland. I don't know how long I can keep it, but the most important was to take it today.

I would love to take this jersey at least to Schwarzenburg in my canton of Bern, the 6 stages will be difficult but I'm very motivated for this Tour of Switzerland 2010.

The classifications after the first stage of the 2010 Tour of Switzerland

Stage classification and general classification

Here's the top 10 of the stage classification which of course also is the general classification after this first stage:

1/ Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) - 10'21" (44,058 km/h)
2/ Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) - +0'01"
3/ Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) - +0'03"
4/ Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) - +0'03"
5/ Dries Devenyns (Quick Step) - +0'10"
6/ Gustav-Erik Larsson (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'11"
7/ Thomas Lövkvist (Team Sky) - +0'12"
8/ Manuel Quinziato (Liquigas-Doimo) - +0'13"
9/ Simon Gerrans (Team Sky) - +0'13"
10/ Jakob Fuglsang (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'13"

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour of Switzerland | Tour of Switzerland 2010 | UCI ProTour

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