As expected, Fabian Cancellara defended his title at the Swiss time trial championships but a pair of BMC youngsters tried to challenge the superior former world champion. Stefan Küng finished second despite a couple of mechanicals at the start while Silvan Dillier continued his excellent start to his professional career by taking third.

Stefan Küng of the BMC Development Team was runner-up and Silvan Dillier of the BMC Racing Team finished third as Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) won the Swiss national time trial championship Wednesday.

Despite having to stop twice in the first 500 meters, Küng finished only 49 seconds back of Cancellara's winning time of 57:55 on the 44.6-kilometer course.

"I was having some technical problems so I lost a lot of time and then it was also in my head," Küng said. But being so close to Cancellara, who won his ninth national time trial title, was encouraging for the 20-year-old, who received special dispensation to race against the professionals instead of in the Under 23 category.

"I felt very good despite what happened at the start," Küng said. "These things can happen. It is not the fault of the mechanic or anybody, and really, I can take a lot of good things out of it."

Dillier was 1:07 off the winning time  and said he was also pleased to be on the podium.

"I am pretty happy with the way I performed because the Tour de Suisse was really tough," Dillier said. "The last few days there I was going deep, especially on Sunday."

In the Under 23 time trial, BMC Development Team's Tom Bohli was runner-up to Théry Schir (EKZ Racing Team) while teammate Lukas Spengler finished fourth.