Vincenzo Nibali pulled on the race leader’s pink jersey at the Giro d’Italia after leading his Liquigas team to victory in the fourth-stage time trial over 33km on Wednesday.
Liquigas powered over the undulating course from Savigliano to Cuneo in the Piedmont region to finish ahead of Bradley Wiggins’ Team Sky, 13 seconds back, with HTC-Columbia finishing third, 21 seconds back.
“Pulling on the pink jersey is a dream come true,” said Nibali, a 25-year-old Sicilian who finished an impressive seventh overall in last year’s Tour de France. “I want to dedicate it to the whole team, who really put in a huge effort.”
Having been among the late starters who faced adverse wind and rain on the course, overnight leader Alexandre Vinokourov was forced to give up the jersey after his Astana team lost composure in the closing kilometers, the Kazakh losing 38 seconds to end up sixth in the overall standings, 33 seconds adrift.
Despite the crucial mountains stages still to come, Vinokourov, who returned to competition last year following a two-year ban for blood doping, is hoping to strike early.
“I had hoped to take some more time off the climbers,” said Vinokourov, the winner last month of the hilly one-day classic Liege-Bastogne-Liege. “The weather conditions didn’t do us any favors.”
While failing to distance rivals, such as 2008 Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre of Spain, who had his Cervelo team to thank for helping limit his losses to only 38 seconds, Vinokourov did pull away from race contender Cadel Evans.
Evans’ BMC team started disastrously, fatally losing two of their team early on and finishing way down the standings, 1 minute, 21 seconds behind Liquigas to leave the Australian, the reigning world champion and a two-time Tour de France runner-up, a massive 1 minute, 59 seconds behind Nibali before any mountains stages.
Liquigas’ official team leader is former race champion Ivan Basso, who served a two-year ban between 2007 and last year for admitting his intention to dope.
Despite seeing Nibali take all the glory, Basso — second overall, 13 seconds adrift — will be more than happy at a result that leaves his team with several strategic options.
Sicilian all-rounder Nibali was only called up for the race at the last minute after Franco Pellizotti was accused of doping and he was keen to calm any speculation over whether he, or Basso, would now spearhead the team’s victory bid.
“We each have our specific role in the race, that was defined before the start and we will respect that,” he said. “He [Basso] has prepared specifically for the Giro, he’s very ambitious and is in great form. So me having the jersey doesn’t change anything.”
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