Tour of California: Wiggins wins Folsom time trial

Image 1 of 42

Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) won the 20km individual time trial stage at the Tour of California Monday afternoon in Folsom. Under bright and sunny skies, Wiggins finished 44 seconds ahead of Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) and 52 seconds ahead of Taylor Phinney (BMC). Wiggins also took the overall race lead from Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma Quickstep).

"It was a fantastic course," Wiggins said. "I've been staying in Folsom for the last week and have been coming up here to ride the course. I knew it back and front. To come here today and put it all into action is a nice feeling."

Dennis, who started just 37th out of 128 riders, set a blistering pace of 24:02 in the hot sun and had to wait more than an hour before Wiggins knocked him from the hot seat.

"To be honest, I knew I wasn't going to win," the 23-year-old Australian said after the race. "I was hoping for a top three. I knew obviously Wiggo and Taylor were always going to be right up there. The one person I was worried about was Jesse Sergent as sort of a dark horse. He beat me in Romandie, and I was waiting for his time to sort of confirm that I would get a podium at least. Once that was sort of past I was pretty relaxed, and I was hoping Wiggo wouldn't take too much time out of me. But he sort of did that."

After looking smooth throughout his ride and catching both his one-minute and two-minute men, Wiggins crossed the line in a speedy 23:18.

Starting 10th from last, the pressure was then on Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing Team) to beat Wiggins, but at the halfway point Phinney was 32 seconds down, a relatively large amount to make up in the remaining 10km. Phinney would roll in with a 24:10 for third.

"You always want to win," he said. "But when the big guns come out. In a time trial there's no hiding. The strongest riders win, and that's how it is. So I'll have to be satisfied with my ride. It was alright, not great."

The surprise of the day was Eloy Teruel (Jamis-Hagens Berman), who finished an impressive fourth place, just 1:08 behind Wiggins. Sergent (Trek Factory Racing) rounded out the top five with a time of 24:29, 1:11 in arrears.

With his stage win, Wiggins more than made up the 10 seconds he was down on previous race leader Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma Quick Step), although the sprinter finished a respectable 27th, with a time of 25:21.

Wiggins will now wear yellow as the race leader going into stage 3. Dennis and Phinney are within a reasonable striking distance at 44 and 52 seconds, respectively - not a huge margin considering all the stages remaining and also considering that stage 3 is this year's Queen Stage.

The peloton will race 174.6km, including two major climbs up Mt. Hamilton and the finish at the top of Mt. Diablo. The challenging course should set the stage for GC contenders looking to make their moves.

Monday's time trial started with Robbie Squire (Jamis-Hagens Berman) as the first man down the start ramp, setting a time of 26:20. Jose Joao Pimenta Costa (Team NetApp-Endura) went a bit faster at 25:49, then Jens Mouris (Orica GreenEdge) took over the hot seat. Belkin's Jack Bobridge lowered the time to beat still more with a 24:33, but only 10 men later, Dennis clocked his 24:02.

With temperatures forecast to be in the upper 90s Fahrenheit for Tuesday's Queen stage, riders will face another long day in the heat. Wiggins said the only thing to do to prepare for the temperatures is to keep drinking.

"We've been here for a couple of weeks now," he said. "So we've gotten used to the heat anyway. But it still doesn't make it any easier. I think everyone is going to have a tough day tomorrow. There's only so much the human body can take."

Results