Sagan wins stage 1 at Tour de Suisse

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Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) flew along the 7.3km time trial course in the opening stage of the Tour de Suisse, taking on every risk on his way to victory and the first leader's jersey of the race, with a time of 9:43. He beat none other than homeland favourite Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan), by four seconds, with Sagan's teammate Moreno Moser third at seven seconds.

"I'm really happy for this moment when everything is going well," said Sagan. "I'm not sure in the chrono, but over short distances, similar to a prologue, I can maximize my power. It was a technical course that I carefully studied in the morning. I had fun and felt comfortable.

"It's a great morale boost, what I need to continue my path towards the Tour de France. Now I will concentrate on the next stages: those in the mountains to work hard and improve in strength, the others to help the team achieve new successes."

The 7.3km city course through Lugano may well have looked familiar, as it was the identical course from last year. Cancellara had won here the last two years, but was unable to repeat that today.

Martin Elmiger of AG2R was the first rider to break the 10 minute mark, but his time was soon broken by Moreno Moser of Liguigas-Cannondale, who came in at 9:50.

Fränk Schleck was trying to make things good again in Switzerland after dropping out of the Giro d'Italia, and put in a decent time of 10:19. Tom Danielson of Garmin-Barracuda came in only three seconds faster.

Cancellara showed that he is perhaps now finally fully recovered from the shattered collarbone he suffered in the Tour of Flanders. He was surprisingly far down at the first intermediate time check, but made up enormous amounts of time on the final half of the course, coming in three seconds faster than Moser.

His time atop the leader board didn't last long, though, as Sagan blitzed the course. He set a new best time at the intermediate time check, and took every chance on the last half with its tricky descent. It paid off, as he jetted across the line four seconds faster than Cancellara.