The Tour de Suisse came to a non-spectacular conclusion for the Radioshack team yesterday at the team had no riders in the top 20 in the final time trial. The team's stars Andy Schleck and Fabian Cancellara used it as a good test for later objectives and described the tough uphill route as a hard one.

When Fabian Cancellara lines up for a time trial, he is usually one of the overwhelming favourites and the quadruple world champion has even won the long time trial in the Tour de Suisse three times. Prior to yesterday's race against the clock, the Swiss star was hardly mentioned at all due to a course that was not at all suited to his characteristics.

The first 16,5km of the 26,8km stage were dead-flat on a long, straight road and thus perfectly suited to the powerful Swiss. However, the final 10,3km took the riders to the top of the 9% Flumserberg climb and so it was no wonder that Cancellera only finished a modest 65th, 5 minutes behind winner Rui Costa (Movistar).

Unsurprisingly, the Radioshack rider had harboured no ambitions for the stage.

"This was a very hard climb in a time trial," he said. "It was constantly uphill, very tough. Certainly not a stage for me. I had no ambitions for this stage and just wanted to ride my best here. I’m tired but that’s normal."

However, the stage was a good test for another race against the clock which the Swiss aims at winning.

"Tomorrow I won’t be on the bike, then a little bit on Tuesday before the Swiss national TT on Wednesday,” he explained.

Radioshack sent their A team to the Tour de Suisse with riders like Fabian Cancellara, Andy Schleck, Maxime Monfort and Andreas Klöden all included in the line-up and expectations were high for a strong performance from the Luxembourgish team. However, everything went wrong for the squad in the early part of the race.

Cancellara would certainly have won the prologue, had the wind not changed direction, and instead he only finished 16th. The next day, the team lost all hopes of an overall top 10 finish as Schleck, Klöden and Monfort all struggled on the climb to Crans-Montana.

The team bounced back though with a very aggressive performance and on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the team had different riders on the attack. The highlight certainly came on Thursday when Gregory Rast won a stage on home soil from a 4-rider breakaway.

Cancellara has often played a prominent role in his home tour, even winning overall in 2009, but this year he was almost totally anonymous. Usually, he has started the race in strong condition with the Tour de France starting just two weeks later but this year the classics specialist has chosen to skip the world's biggest race in an attempt to finally win the road race world championships.

“I had a nice beginning in the prologue here," he said of his performance. "I had no luck to win because of the wind, but that’s how it is with sports. I had a tough Tour de Suisse compared to other years. This is because before the race I knew I would not be riding the Tour de France so the focus in my training was different and that made Tour de Suisse pretty hard in the end. I think we went hard every day."

"I’m happy for Swiss sports and the success of this race and I’m really, really happy for Gregy (Rast, ed.).  We didn’t meet our GC goals in the beginning so we had to look for another tactic and that became to get in breakaways. We were successful with Gregy so we achieved the goal to win a stage. We can be happy for that."

The next races for Cancellara will be the national time trial championships, maybe the road race and the Tour of Austria.

"Now I turn the page to build up for the next few races – Austria for sure and maybe the championships," he said. "We’ll see. I need to start some specific training to build on the form I have.  I will continue working hard toward the worlds.”

Good test for Schleck

Andy Schleck had bounced back from a disappointing start to the race with a strong ride in Friday's queen stage. Today's stage provided him with a final chance to test his condition prior to the Tour de France.

Time trials have never been his forte but the strange nature of this one could have made it possible for Schleck to shine. He did, however, finish a modest 35th and once again pointed to his discomfort at riding alone.

“That was a hard TT," he said." We changed the bikes before the climb but it was the last stage so we’re already a bit tired. It was a good test on the last day. The climb felt ok to me, but riding it alone instead of with a teammate or others around isn’t such a good measure. But overall I had good feelings.”

Klöden bounced back from illness

Klöden enjoyed a moment in the spotlight as the veteran German briefly held the best time. When the GC riders started their rides, he fell down the ranking, ending a modest 29th.

Nonetheless, the former runner-up in the event was happy to see that his level was on the rise as illness had made for a tough start to the race.

“I said before coming here that it was important to be in good shape for this race," he said. "It’s the last race before the Tour. I was sick at first and had six days of antibiotics but halfway through I was getting better and better.  For me I needed to see that my legs were coming better so today provided that test. This wasn’t an easy race, especially being sick at the beginning.”

“These last three days my form has been coming back and it was my goal today to show that I have good legs," he said. "I know this climb. I was sure if I went too fast on the flat that I would blow up on the climb. So I went tempo on the first part and then I knew the last 35 minutes had to be all out. The younger riders are always looking at the SRM but I think you need a general idea of how your own body is feeling. For example in a race like Tour de Suisse, you cannot generate the same power at the end of the race that you did at the beginning. That’s why I just picked a good pace for the first part.”

Devolder confident for the Tour

Classics specialist Stijn Devolder briefly held the seconds best time but fell back into 48th when the stronger riders started to arrive. Like his teammates, his focus was also firmly directed at the Tour.

“I had second best time for awhile, but I rode early," he explained. "This has been a hard Tour of Switzerland and today I wanted to test my legs to see how my condition is for the Tour de France since there is a very hard time trial there too. I did a strong flat section but I was good on the climb too. I wanted to be empty at the end so I could compare myself with the favorites. I think I am in a good way now; my condition is still improving.”

Earlier in his career, the double Tour of Flanders winner tried to convert himself into a GC contender, performing solidly in the Vuelta a Espana and Tour de Suisse. Having struggled to replicate those performances later in his career, he has put those ambitions to rest and will line up at the world's biggest race as a domestique.

The Tour de France starts in less than two weeks on Corsica.