Not known as a time trial specialist, Sergio Pardilla went into today's Tour de Suisse time trial with the goal of limiting his losses. Despite a mechanical, he did well and is now ready to strike in the upcoming mountain stages.

Tony Martin (Omega Pharma Quickstep) showed exactly why he is the world time trial champion once again with a dominant display at the stage 7 individual time trial at the Tour de Suisse. The German would win the stage ahead of Tom Dumoulin (Giant Shimano) and Rui Costa (Lampre Merida). Sergio Pardilla was the highest placed rider from Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung, despite battling with mechanical issues during the stage.

The other Team MTN-Qhubeka riders, while not time trial specialists specifically, would put in some decent performances on the tough and technical course. Never before have the African riders on Team MTN-Qhubeka gone up against such a class time trialing field. Daniel Teklehaimanot showed some good signs early on, stopping the clock in 5th place at each of the time checks at the point in time when he took to the course. Louis Meintjes also put in a more than fair ride. The young South African rider finished 2’31″ behind the World Champion, with time on Meintjes side, a lot of encouragement could be taken from his performance today as he only lost 1 place on the GC after today time trial.

Tomorrow and Sunday will now provide the stern test that the climbers have been looking forward to. With both stages ending with out of category climbs, the General Classification will certainly see a drastic shake up still. Pardilla has shown good form throughout the week and Meintjes and Gerdemann both have a climbing pedigree that should make them all feel quite comfortable with the stages to come.

"Unfortunately Sergio had a technical problem today but he rode strongly despite his problems," Directeur Sportif Jens Zemke said. "Louis did a good TT and was able to maintain his good position on GC.

"We look forward to the tough climbing stages over the next two days and we hope to move up some places in the GC. The Tour de Suisse is such a fantastic race and the level here is of the highest order, we are really happy to be part of this event.