The world road cycling championships in Lisbon began in quiet fashion for the Swiss riders involved, with Switzerland failing to make much of an impression in the opening two events.

Andrea Knecht was the best-placed Swiss cyclist in the junior women's time trial, finishing 13th with her compatriot Patricia Schwager another two places further back.

Britain's Nicole Cooke came up with a magnificent performance in wet and slippery conditions to win Tuesday's race around the 11.8 kilometre circuit in a time of 18'45". Russia's Natalia Boiarskaia came in eight seconds behind Cooke to clinch second place, while Lithuania's Diana Elmentaite grabbed third spot.

The Swiss men fared no better in the men's under-23 time trial, with Sandro Güttinger and Markus Joho finishing in 25th and 29th place respectively. Fastest round the 33.7 kilometre course was America's Danny Pate who took gold ahead of Germany's Sebastian Land and South Africa's James Perry.

Swiss hopes in the tournament's showcase event suffered another setback on Tuesday, with Basel rider Fabian Jeker announcing his withdrawal from Sunday's elite men's road race.

Jeker, who said that he was not on good enough form to consider taking part will be replaced by Marcel Strauss, currently listed at 282nd in the sport's world rankings.

The Swiss team for Sunday's race has already been hard hit by the withdrawals through either injury or poor form of top riders Oscar Camenzind, Laurent Dufaux, Alex Zülle, Markus Zberg and Sven Montgomery.

swissinfo with agencies

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