Albasini to lead Switzerland at World Championships in Valkenburg

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With former time trial world champion Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) announcing he was ending his season shortly after the Olympic Games and Martin Elmiger (Ag2r La Mondiale) still recovering from his crash sustained at Vattenfall Cyclassics, the pressure will rest on Michael Albasini to deliver a result for his Swiss team in the road race at the World Championships in Valkenburg, The Netherlands.

Albasini has already shown his leadership qualities this year after winning the overall at the Volta a Catalunya in March. The 31-year-old won the opening stage and lead the race from start to finish, picking up his win on stage 2. His most recent victory was at Tour de Suisse before heading to the Tour de France where, despite a number of gutsy efforts in breakaways, he failed to win a stage.

The Swiss Federation has named four of the six who will represent Switzerland at the UCI Road World Championships. The BMC Racing Team will see two of their riders represented with Steve Morabito and Michael Schär while Gregory Rast (RadioShack-Nissan) has also been confirmed.

The final two spots will be selected from Mathias Frank, Johann Tschopp, Martin Kohler (BMC) or last year’s Giro di Lombardia winner Oliver Zaugg (RadioShack-Nissan). Zaugg has shown he’s in good shape after finishing in 15th place at both Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal and Québec.