Tour de Suisse: Martin victorious in stage 7 time trial

Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) took his second stage victory at the Tour de Suisse, in the time trial on stage 7, ahead of Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) and Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida).

Martin put everything into the 24.5 kilometre course, as he looked to secure his position in the leader’s jersey with two mountain stages to come. Ahead of the stage, Martin had said that he would like to put a minute into his rivals, to secure himself enough time in the mountains. It wasn’t as much as he would like, but he completed the undulation course 22 seconds faster than anyone and extended his lead in the general classification.

"Anything is possible," Martin said of the coming stages. "As for the stage tomorrow, it's easier of the two stages. I'm familiar with the Verbier finish from the Tour de France. The last climb I hope I can treat it like a TT, find a good rhythm and hang on to the other guys. I have the jersey, but it will not be easy. There are a lot of competitors, even the entire top 20 of the general classification. But, the morale is really good, we've been working hard the whole week. The team has done a great job supporting me. I will give it 110% to honor this yellow jersey and the effort of my teammates to keep me in it."

Dumoulin put in an impressive ride to keep himself in second in the general classification, sitting only 28 seconds behind Martin, but was somewhat disappointed to miss out on a stage victory.

“It’s another second place and I don’t quite know what to think yet but it was a good performance and I was feeling good,” Dumoulin said. “For sure Tony is going really well here but to come second again is a bit frustrating. But focusing on the positives I paced myself well over quite a hard course and felt strong.

Costa’s third place was enough to move him into the same position in the overall standings, replacing Peter Sagan (Cannondale) who slipped down to sixth.

Fabian Cancellara, who set the early benchmark, would end the day in fourth place.

The second time trial of the Tour de Suisse would take the riders over two unclassified climbs as they rode out and back to Worb. With two tough hors categorie summit finishes to come this weekend, it was Martin’s last chance to put some time into his rivals.

Sky’s day got off to a bad start with Sergio Henao being taken to the hospital with a suspected broken knee. The Colombian had reportedly been hit by a vehicle during a recon of the course that morning.

Sitting second from last in the general classification, Cancellara was the second man to take to the 24.5 kilometre time trial. The four-time world time trial champion set a blistering pace, completing the course in a time of 32:18. I would be a long time before anyone would get close to him.

As the final riders began their time trial, Jérémy Roy (FDJ.fr) was sitting in second place 33 second behind Cancellara. Stef Clement (Belkin) would soon eclipse that. He cut the time to Cancellara down to 21 seconds, not enough to make the Swiss nervous.

Costa did that, however, when he went through the first checkpoint 18 seconds faster than anyone else. That had gone up to 26 second by the second check point and the Lampre man flew passed his minute-man Janier Acevedo (Garmin-Sharp).

Acevedo was able to hang onto the two-time Tour de Suisse champion on the descent, who lost a little bit of time to Cancellara. Despite that, he has managed to build up a significant enough lead to put him into the top spot by 13 seconds.

Third-placed Sagan didn’t pose a threat to Costa’s time, but Dumoulin would roll in and beat the Portuguese by a mere six seconds. His new fastest time would not last very long when the reigning time trial world champion hit the finish line, 22 seconds quicker.

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