Cycling: Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) not only defended his overall lead in the Tour de Suisse on the seventh stage, but also extended it. With his second victory of the day, he improved the starting position for the upcoming two mountain stages.
"I'll probably need a minute more", Martin had put on record before the 24-kilometer individual time trial in Worb, alluding to the climbing strength of his supposed competitors. However, he was able to keep this relatively well in check. Cadel Evans (BMC) was well behind at 1:16 and Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo) at 1:36.
However, the time trial world champion did not manage to clearly distance the reigning road world champion. Rui Costa (Lampre Merida) is just over a minute behind Martin in the standings. Behind him lurks the surprise of the day in Mathias Frank (IAM). The Swiss drove a very strong time trial for his standards and should be equal to Costa in the mountains.
The big unknown will be Dutchman Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) on the final two stages. He lost just 22 seconds to Martin and is less than half a minute behind in the overall standings.
Fabian Cancellara (Trek) set the first target time of the day. The man from Bern held the best time at the finish for a long time, but in the end had to settle for fourth place on the day.
Tour de Suisse – result
Tour de Suisse – overall