Says second place in final time trial was a better performance than first day victory
Fabian Cancellara took a look back at the recently completed tour of his home country of Switzerland on his website on Sunday. The World Time Trial champion was not able to duplicate his time trial victory from a week prior, but confessed that, "On a performance level, I am happy with the time trial. I felt better than I did when I won the Prologue in Lugano; the rhythm of the race was better."
A breath later, Cancellara concedes the obvious: "Of course it's disappointing that I was only second. A lot of my opponents had the psychological advantage that they were fighting for the overall victory."
Cancellara suffered a rare defeat in a time trial at the hands of HTC-Columbia's Tony Martin. Martin got the better of Cancellara by 17 seconds.
"Now, I will focus on recovering properly. At the forefront this time is not necessarily recovery from the physical stresses, but rather recovery from the rain and the somewhat different rhythm of the Tour de Suisse with a wake up at 10 in the morning and dinner at 10 in the evening."
Cancellara was happy to give credit to his Swiss fans: "Many people supported us along the road. You showed that cycling in Switzerland continues to thrive and enjoy a high priority."
Unlike many of the Tour de France favorites that went straight from the Tour de Suisse to do Tour de France course previews in the Alps on Monday, Cancellara preferred a day of complete rest.
"On Monday, I will be sure to take the day off and enjoy the day with my family. I will look forward to Wednesday [and the Swiss time trial championship] - the weather should finally be warmer!"