There was disappointment for the British duo of Bradley Wiggins and David Millar as Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland retained his World Championship time trial title in Stuttgart.

Olympic individual pursuit champion Wiggins was tenth and 2001 runner-up Millar a lowly 18th as Cancellara sped around the 45km course in 55:41.35.

Laszlo Bodrogi of Hungary claimed silver, 52.06 seconds behind, with young Dutchman Stef Clement (56:39.06) taking a surprise bronze medal.

26-year-old Cancellara, who rides for the CSC team, led at all three intermediate time check points and completed the course at an average speed of 48.38km/h.

Cancellara won by about 90 seconds in Salzburg last year. This time he made an equally quick start, making the race safe by the halfway stage and catching last year's silver medallist David Zabriskie for two minutes with over 5km remaining.

Going out last, he had the advantage of knowing the times of his rivals and was able to ride within himself over the second lap, while still building up a big lead.

"When I saw this morning it was raining I had in mind the Tour de France stage when I crashed," Cancellara said.

"I made a very fast start and it was important to know the time of the other riders. It was an advantage to start at number one."

Cancellara, who won the prologue and a further stage at the Tour de France this year, said defending his title had been harder than winning it.

"There was more pressure than last year," he said. "I just had one goal, to defend the title, and it was beautiful for sure."

Wiggins (57:52.13) and Millar (58:21.41) were never on terms and both will look for better in Sunday's road race.

Results:

1. Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland / Team CSC ) 55 mins 41 secs

2. Laszlo Bodrogi (Hungary / Credit Agricole ) +52"

3. Stef Clement (Netherlands / Bouygues Telecom ) +57"

4. Bert Grabsch (Germany / T-Mobile ) +1:12"

5. Sebastian Lang (Germany / Gerolsteiner ) +1:17"

6. Vladimir Gusev (Russia / Discovery Channel ) +1:46"

7. Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Spain / Caisse d'Epargne ) +1:56"

8. Andrey Mizourov (Kazakhstan / Astana ) +2:02"

9. Vasil Kiryienka (Belarus / Tinkoff ) +2:03"

10. Bradley Wiggins (Britain / Cofidis ) +2:10"

11. Dominique Cornu (Belgium / Predictor - Lotto ) +2:10"

12. David Zabriskie (U.S. / Team CSC ) +2:13"

13. Raivis Belohvosciks (Latvia / Saunier Duval ) +2:19"

14. Marco Pinotti (Italy / T-Mobile ) +2:20"

15. Gustav Erik Larsson (Sweden / Unibet.com ) +2:30"

16. Matti Helminen (Finland / DFL - Cyclingnews.com ) +2:31"

17. Andrey Kunytski (Belarus / Acqua & Sapone ) +2:37"

18. David Millar (Britain / Saunier Duval ) +2:40"

19. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Liquigas ) +2:42"

20. Jason McCartney (U.S. / Discovery Channel ) +2:42"

Eurosport