Tom Dumoulin wins opening time trial at Tour de Suisse

Tom Dumoulin(Giant-Alpecin) became the first leader of the Tour de Suisse when he defeated Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) to win the opening 5.1km time trial in Risch-Rotkreuz. 

The Dutchman scorched around the course in a time of 5:41 to finish two seconds inside the previous best that had been established by Cancellara. Former world hour record holder Matthias Brändle (IAM Cycling) took third on the stage, a further two seconds back. 

"I am very happy with this victory. After returning from the team's altitude training camp in the Sierra Nevada, it is always a question as to how the legs will perform but it is a great feeling that it turned out to be excellent," Dumoulin said.

"Now I have the yellow leader's jersey and together with the strong team that we have here, we will see and try to keep it as long as possible obviously."

The race was Dumoulin’s first since Liège-Bastogne-Liège six weeks ago and his time away from racing included a two-week spell at altitude as part of his build-up to the Tour de France, where he will look to claim the first yellow jersey of the race in the stage 1 time trial on home roads in Utrecht.

Before that, Dumoulin will surely harbour ambitions of a high overall finish on a Tour de Suisse route with something of a deficit of major mountain stages, given that he placed 5th overall a year ago. For now, however, he simply declared himself pleased that he did not have to face Tony Martin in the opening time trial – the German pipped him in the corresponding stage a year ago.

Cancellara had to settle for being feted on the podium afterwards as best-placed Swiss rider, though after struggling with a throat infection during the week, he will not have been at all displeased by his performance.

As expected, the top placings on the stage were filled by three time trial specialists, but Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) offered an encouraging indication of his form for the week ahead by taking fourth on the day, just five seconds down on Dumoulin.

There was disappointment for Adriano Malori (Movistar), who had to settle for 9th at 6 seconds, just ahead of Geraint Thomas, who will lead Sky’s overall challenge in Switzerland. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) limited his losses to 14 seconds, Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) conceded 17 seconds, while the Polish pairing of Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep) lost 20 and 21 seconds, respectively.

In his first race since crashing out of the Giro d’Italia on stage 3 in Liguria, Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r-La Mondiale) finished 59th at 19 seconds. The afternoon was marred somewhat by Silvan Dillier’s heavy fall with three kilometres of his time trial remaining, though the BMC rider was able to remount and complete the stage.

The day belonged to Dumoulin, however, who will wear the leader’s jersey on Sunday’s opening road stage, which starts and finishes in Rotkreuz.

"The feeling was not perfect but apparently I still went very fast," Dumoulin joked after the stage. "I think I made up the time over the whole course, because I had a good plan up front and I executed it well over the course. I went fast on the hills and I took it a little bit easier on the flat."

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