Cancellara roars to Suisse lead

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Fabian Cancellara of Team Saxo Bank dominated the opening time trial of the Tour de Suisse, finishing an astonishing 19 seconds faster than his closest competition over the 7.8 km course in Liechtenstein. Defending champion Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) was second and Astana's Andreas Klöden was third, 22 seconds down.

It was only the second victory this season for the Olympic time trial champion. He earlier won the opening prologue at the Tour of California. He had to withdraw from that race due to sickness, and later injured his shoulder blade in a training crash.

"I am immensely happy about the victory coming after a period where I have been working really hard," said Cancellara, who averaged 50 km/h. "Today I made the result which I have sought for a long time. It is obviously a race that means a lot to me personally while it ranks high in the international hierarchy."

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Bjarne Riis praised his Swiss rider, saying, "Fabian did a perfect prologue in all aspects. He showed that he is truly a unique rider and when he is in shape he is impossible to beat. At the same time it also underlines that the form is exactly where it must be to be ready for the next important tasks."

Kreuziger was amazed at his own performance. "My goal was a place in the top 10," he said. "I never figured I'd get second place."

Team Columbia-Highroad also put on a impressive showing, with George Hincapie, Tony Martin, Kim Kirchen and Maxime Monfort finishing fourth through seventh.

Although there was a large gap between the first and second placed riders, the rest of the times were fairly close. The first 88 riders are all within one minute of Cancellara.

Cervelo TestTeam's Heinrich Haussler continued to ride well, finishing 34 seconds down in eighth place. "There was a heavy head wind and the course looked easier than it was, especially the second part of the stage which was quite tough," he said. "But I reached my goal of a top 10 place with my eighth place finish."

Cancellara said that he would do his best to defend his leader's jersey. "I will take it day to day." He noted the strong competition in the race, saying, "I can't compare myself to Kreuziger, Klöden or the Schleck brothers."

Sunday's stage two is a short and unusual stage, starting and ending in Davos. It starts out with a short ascent, followed by a 45-kilometre descent. After a short more-or-less flat stretch, it starts quietly climbing again, and then goes up a category one climb with a short descent, then continues to climb up to the finish.