Tom Dumoulin again proved that he is pretty close to Tony Martin in the time trials when he finished second behind the world champion in today's stage of the Tour de Suisse. As this was his third runner-up spot behind Martin in less than a month, the Dutchman is starting to get a bit frustrated by his near-misses.

Tom Dumoulin has repeated his finishing position from the opening time trial of the Tour de Suisse on today’s seventh stage, finishing second fastest over the 24.7km course. Not far behind Dumoulin you find Lawson Craddock in sixth place, under a minute down on stage winner and world time trial champion, Tony Martin (Omega Pharma – Quickstep).

The Tour de Suisse is Craddock's first WorldTour race and to finish in the top ten in the long time trial here is a great show of strength from the 22-year-old, and together with 23-year-old Dumoulin it is a great view of what is still to come from these talented young riders.

Unfortunately John Degenkolb did not start today’s time trial as he was still suffering from the effects of his heavy fall on stage four. Together with the team, Degenkolb decided to focus on recovery before the national championships next weekend and then the Tour de France.

“It’s another second place and I don’t quite know what to think yet but it was a good performance and I was feeling good,” said a slightly disappointed Dumoulin after the finish. “For sure Tony is going really well here but to come second again is a bit frustrating. But focusing on the positives I paced myself well over quite a hard course and felt strong.

“Next week is the national time trial championships and I am really looking forward to this race. I think that I have a good chance there and it would be amazing to win there.”

Craddock spoke about how his race went: “I was really surprised by how it went today, fair to say I exceeded my own expectations. It’s my first WorldTour race and to get a result like that here is great.

“I had the best legs i’ve had all week here today and it sets me up well for two more hard days ahead in the mountains.”