Riders throughout Europe are contesting national championships this week, with several countries holding time trials on Wednesday and Thursday.

In the Russian time trial championship, Astana’s Vladimir Gusev was the fastest rider on the difficult circuit of Krylatskoe in Moscow. Young talented rider Timofey Kritskiy (Team Katyusha) was second, Vladimir Karpets (Caisse d’Epargne) third.

Gusev takes the TT title for the third time

The win is Gusev’s third gold in the event (2003, 2007, 2008), his first for the Kazakh based Astana Cycling Team. The win comes after Gusev had fully recovered from a broken collar bone in the Tour of California. After a strong Giro d’Italia, in support of overall winner Alberto Contador, he clearly hits his top form.

“I am very glad with this victory. It is always an honor to wear the national jersey. I want to thank my Team Director and former Olympic Time Trial Champion Viatcheslav Ekimov for his advice today. I hope that we can return on Sunday from Russia with two national jerseys. It is a nice reward for our Kazakh sponsors who give so much to our sport,” said Gusev.

The Russian Road Championship will be held on Sunday, June 29th, in Krylatskoe as well. Viatcheslav Ekimov will direct a small, but strong duo: Vladimir Gusev and Sergey Ivanov.

Fabian Cancellara (CSC-Saxo Bank) won his sixth Swiss National Time Trial Championship on Wednesday. It was world TT champ's fifth consecutive Swiss win.

Cancellara said he had been feeling worn out for the last couple of days after his two victories in seventh and ninth stages of Tour de Suisse.

"I'm still exhausted but I still gave everything I had today. It's my club which has organized the race and I really enjoy “going back to basics" and participating here without sports directors, mechanics, soigneurs or anyone else. I think it's quite healthy for us pros to come home and rediscover our roots a bit," Cancellara said after the race.

Cancellara's CSC-Saxo Bank teammate Lars Bak also claimed a second national TT championship this week, winning the Danish championships after finishing 55 seconds ahead of Frank Høj (Cofidis). Michael Blaudzun took the bronze medal 1:28 seconds behind Bak.

"I've felt my form to be on the up lately and I've had a good feeling in training so I believed it was possible today," said Bak.

Russia
1. Vladimir Gusev (Astana), 39km in 54.58
2. Timofey Kritskiy (Katyusha), at 1:30
3. Vladimir Karpets (Caisse d’Epargne), at 2:00

France
1. Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis), 43.2km in 53:15 (48.676kph)
2. Christophe Kern (Credit Agricole), at 1:17
3. Noan Lelarge (Bretague Armor Lux), at 1:37
4. Nicolas Vogondy (Ag2r), at 1:41
5. Damien Monier (Cofidis), at 1:41
6. Florian Morizot (Auber 93), at 1:42
7. Jerome Coppel (FDJ), at 1:50
8. Christophe Moreau (Ag2r), at 2:26
9. Dimitri Champion (Bouygues Telecom), at 2:32
10. Florent Brard (Cofidis), at 2:38

Luxemburg
1 Kim Kirchen (High Road-Columbia), 24:22
2 Christian Poos (SAF Zeisseng-Differdange Apiflo Vacances), 0:29
3 Benoît Joachim (CC Mondercange-Astana), 0:40
4 Laurent Didier (UC Dippach-Team Kuota-Senges), 1:05

Poland
1. Lukasz Bodnar (DHL Author), 43.6 km in 56:40.
2. Maciej Bodnar, at 0:03
3. Mateusz Taciak, at 0: 40

Czech Republic
1. Frantisek Rabon (High Road-Columbia), 40 km in 49:53.
2. Jan Hruska (Cyklotrenink.com), at 0: 46.
3. Rene Andrle (PSK Whirlpool Author), at 1:25.

Slovakia
1. Matej Jurco (Milram), 40 km in 50:56
2. Robert Nagy (Union RC IVP), at 0:53
3. Roman Bronis (Dukla Trencin), at 3:42

Estonia
1. Tanel Kangert (AG2R) 40 km in 51:57
2. Allan Oras, at 1:01
3. Andre Aduson at 1:07

Germany
Men:
1. Bert Grabsch (High Road) 40 km in 46:50
2. Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) at 0:10.
3. Tony Martin (High Road) at 0:37.

Women:
1. Hanka Kupfernagel 30 km in 40:49.
2. Judith Arndt at 0:03.
3. Charlotte Beckerr at 0:32.