HTC-Columbia's Maxime Monfort has advanced into the overall lead of the Bayern Rundfahrt race in Germany after clinching the event's individual time trial stage Saturday.  Monfort sped around the hilly time trial course, starting and finishing in the town of Berching, 12 seconds faster than Italy's Adriano Malori. HTC-Columbia's Hayden Roulston took third on the stage, giving the team two out of the top three spots of the day.

Monfort, the reigning Belgian national time trial champion, said later that he was surprised but pleased at the result.  "I haven't raced for five weeks, so I wasn't expecting my form to be this good.  But in each stage of the race so far I've been feeling a little bit better and today I felt the best.  It was a very hilly course, with two big climbs with steady gradients of between five and ten percent, and that suited me too."

Monfort used Roulston as a reference point to ensure he maintained a steady pace on the 27.8 kilometre course.  "Hayden had set the best provisional time, and as I was beating his times all the way through, I knew I was on the right track.  I passed two guys that had started ahead of me as well, and that's always something that gives you extra motivation."

Now in the overall lead, Monfort says he will try to stay in control of the race on the final stage Sunday.  "Tomorrow's stage is really flat and hopefully it should end in a bunch sprint.  I haven't got much of a margin, just 12 seconds on Malori, and I haven't won a stage race since 2004, so the team and I will be giving it 100 percent to try to get this win."