Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack) almost owns the Swiss time trial champion's jersey and today he secured his right to wear it for another year. Having been distanced by Martin Elmiger (IAM), the quadruple world champion finished strongly to take the title for the second time in a row.

Prior to today's Swiss time trial championships, Fabian Cancellara has won no less than 7 titles and despite a non-spectacular performance in the recent Tour de Suisse, the quadruple world champion was the overwhelming favourite to take his 8th win today when the championship race was held on a 38km course in Satigny.

Cancellara was last defeated at the event in 2001 and won 6 consecutive titles from 2002 to 2008. He skipped the race in 2009, 2010 and 2011 but was back reclaim his crown last year and today he lived up to expectations by making it two in a row.

However, he got an early scare as Martin Elmiger (IAM) set a time that was 7 seconds faster than Cancellara's at the first check. At the second check, he had recovered some of the lost time and was 3 seconds up on his rival but the race suddenly turned into a much closer affair than most had expected.

Cancellara put the hammer down on the final part of the course though and when he crossed the finish line, he had beaten the mark set by Elmiger by 59 seconds. Thus he earned the right to wear his nationa' champion's jersey for another year while Elmiger had to be content with one of the minor podium places for the fourth time in his career.

Only 5 riders lined up at the start, 3 of them being from IAM. Reto Hollenstein held off his teammate Marcel Wyss to take 3rd while Claudio Imhof (Atlas Personal) finished 5th.

Cancellara will later decide whether he will line up at the road race championships on Sunday where he could face an overwhelming IAM team whose rich presence will make them the big favourite to take the title that was last year won by Martin Kohler (BMC).

Result:

1. Fabian Cancellara 50.35

2. Martin Elmiger +0.59

3. Reto Hollenstein +1.57

4. Marcel Wyss +2.28

5. Claudio Imhof +5.47