With defending road race champion Riccardo Zoidl skipping the race, Matthias Brändle (IAM) went into today's Austrian time trial championships as the overwhelming favourite and he fully lived up to expectations. Beating Gregor Mühlberger (Tirol) by almost a minute, he defended the title he claimed one year ago.

With several great performances in WorldTour time trials, Matthias Brändle has proved that he is one of the best time triallists in the world and so he was obviously the rider to beat in today's Austrian TT championships. No one managed to do so and Brändle comfortably defended his title with his third ever win in the event.

Brändle beat Gregory Mühlberger by 58 seconds while Andreas Hofer (Vorarlberg) was 26 seconds further adrift in third. The race was held on a pretty short 25km course in Sulz im Burgenland.

Brändle will again be one of the favourites in Sunday's road race but here he will be up against fellow professionals Riccardo Zoidl and Bernhard Eisel.

Result:

1. Matthias Brändle 32.05

2. Gregor Mühlberger +0.58

3. Andreas Hofer +1.24

4. Patrick Bosman +1.51

5. Markus Eibegger +1.55