Cancellara also commented the ongoing doping discussions: "Cycling has the best [anti-doping] system in the World. We have to believe some of the young riders that they are clean."

"It was obvious that he was nervous about being the biggest favorite today. At the various intermediate times his lead wasn't all that big, but the last 15 kilometers made all the difference. When he caught up to the two, who started before him we knew the gold was within reach, but some of the others were quite fast today too. He possesses the ability to suck it up and he won this medal thanks to a great effort. He managed to put a big fat nail thru the fact that he simply is the best in the world at this particular discipline," said Kim Andersen, who acted as sports director for Cancellara at the World Championships for the second year running.

Rabobank Continental-team sports director Piet Kuys assisted Stef Clement, with whom he is still frequently in contact. "This is amazing. I am a little bit frustrated though by the fact that Bodrogi passed him in the ranking at the very last moment. If he has a world-class rider like Gutierrez with him, it makes a big difference, because Stef absolutely did not run out of gas in the finale. He started off a bit modestly, but I consciously decided not to notify him. Shortly after that, at the first measuring point, I saw that he had found the right rhythm. It is a very special performance."

"I gave it all I had in the final ten kilometers," confirmed Clement. "But, I did that from the beginning. That is the kind of rhythm you want to keep. If you can do that, you will ride a good time trial. Riding a time trial nowadays is not only about composing a good individual schedule. I know that I can go one-hundred percent for about an hour when I have a good day. But, you need to wait and see whether you have one of those good days. Fortunately, I did. Now, for the second time in one week, I finish in third place in such an important race. I would have been absolutely all-smiles had they told me this beforehand."

Heavy rain earlier in the day made the course wet for the first of four groups of riders, but had mostly dried by the time the favourites started later in the afternoon. German national ITT champion Bert Grabsch was in the third group to start and clocked the fourth time: "In the first laps of the two laps I had to descend into the corners very carefully, but that wasn't a problem anymore on the second lap."

"But if I had started in the last group of riders then I think I could have saved those extra few seconds that would have been the difference between collecting a medal or not", added Grabsch.