Britain’s Bradley Wiggins won the individual time trial at the Tour de France on Monday, widening his margin over defending champion Cadel Evans by more than a minute and proving why he’s the favorite to win the bike race.
Meanwhile, American Tejay Van Garderen moved back into the best young rider’s white jersey with the 4th best time of the day.
The peloton will take a rest day on Tuesday before heading into the Alps beginning Wednesday. Although Wiggins (Team SKY) now leads Evans (BMC) by 1:53, a lot can happen in the nearly two weeks of racing that remains.
Wiggins was the last man to start the 26-mile individual time trial in Arc et Sanans, considered a rather technical course with some tight turns and hills. Evans, trailing by only 10 seconds at the start of the stage, lost time on every split and finished trailing Wiggins by 1:53.
Although Evans retained 2nd place overall, Wiggins teammate Chris Froome moved up to 3rd place with the second fastest time of the day.
Another big winner of the day was Van Garderen of BMC. When he finished, he had the 2nd fastest time of the day, second only to Fabian Cancellara. By the time all the riders were in, he had dropped to the 4th fastest time, but that was good enough to elevate him from 17th to 8th in the overall classification.
After having a tough time of the first major climb on Saturday and dropping out of 4th place overall, the Tacoma, Washington-native is back in the top 10.
Top 10 overall
1. | GBR WIGGINS Bradley | 101 | SKY PROCYCLING | 39h 09′ 20” | |
2. | AUS EVANS Cadel | 1 | BMC RACING TEAM | 39h 11′ 13” | + 01′ 53” |
3. | GBR FROOME Christopher | 105 | SKY PROCYCLING | 39h 11′ 27” | + 02′ 07” |
4. | ITA NIBALI Vincenzo | 51 | LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE | 39h 11′ 43” | + 02′ 23” |
5. | RUS MENCHOV Denis | 131 | KATUSHA TEAM | 39h 12′ 22” | + 03′ 02” |
6. | ESP ZUBELDIA Haimar | 19 | RADIOSHACK-NISSAN | 39h 12′ 39” | + 03′ 19” |
7. | BEL MONFORT Maxime | 16 | RADIOSHACK-NISSAN | 39h 13′ 43” | + 04′ 23” |
8. | USA VAN GARDEREN Tejay | 9 | BMC RACING TEAM | 39h 14′ 34” | + 05′ 14” |
9. | BEL VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen | 111 | LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM | 39h 14′ 40” | + 05′ 20” |
10. | IRL ROCHE Nicolas | 79 | AG2R LA MONDIALE | 39h 14′ 49” | + 05′ 29” |
US cyclists:
8. Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) 5:14 behind
19. Levi Leipheimer (Omega) 8:34
23. Chris Horner (RadioShack) 9:07
49. George Hincapie (BMC) 25:25
81. Christian Vande Velde (Garmin) 36:16
116. David Zabriskie (Garmin) 44:12
177. Tyler Farrar (Garmin) 1:18
Withdrew — Tom Danielson (injury)
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