British rider Bradley Wiggins, the 2012 Tour de France winner and Olympic time trial gold medalist, powered to a 44 second victory in the stage 2 individual time trial on Monday to take the race lead at the Tour of California.
Sky Procycling’s Wiggins, the 98th rider in the field of 128, completed the flat 20km course in 23 minutes, 18 seconds at an average speed of 51.5kph.
Australia’s Rohan Dennis of Garmin-Sharp was second in 24:02, with American Taylor Phinney of BMC Racing third in 24:10.
Photo: AFP
Wiggins leads the eight-day race by 44 seconds over Dennis and 52 seconds over Phinney.
“I’m in really good shape,” Wiggins said. “I’m a bit ahead of where I was in 2012 for the Tour de France. So far, so good. You have to plan your races and so far it’s been better than I planned.”
UnitedHealthcare’s Alison Powers of the US claimed the earlier 20-rider women’s time trial, held on the same course, in 27:40.
Britain’s Mark Cavendish of Omega Pharma-QuickStep, who held the first-day lead after his sprint win in Stage 1, finished 27th on stage 2.
Phinney, who was joint favorite to win the the stage, fell behind quickly at the halfway time check and could not make up the time.
“I thought I could have done better, but I not really a hot-weather rider,” Phinney said. “But I did the best as I could and that’s what it is all about. So I have to be satisfied.”
Wiggins had not ridden in the Tour of California since 2008, but instead of racing in the Giro d’Italia, Wiggins focused on the US event in the preparation for the Tour de France.
“It was a really fast course,” Wiggins said. “I take it one day at a time. It will be a tough day tomorrow in the heat.”
The eight-day race continued yesterday with the 174.5km San Jose to Mount Diablo road race.
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