Sunday 14 September 2014 20:17, UK
Sir Bradley Wiggins won stage 8a’s individual time trial at the Tour of Britain to climb to third place in the general classification as Dylan van Baarle all but guaranteed overall victory by retaining his race lead.
Wiggins negotiated a flat 8.8km circuit on the banks of the Thames in central London in a time of 9min 50sec, which was eight seconds faster than runner-up Sylvain Chavanel and nine seconds ahead of third-placed Steve Cummings.
Van Baarle started the day with a 19-second lead over second-placed Michal Kwiatkowski in the overall standings and although he was beaten by the Pole, he only lost to him by nine seconds and will consequently take a ten-second lead into Sunday afternoon’s race-ending 88.8km sprint stage.
Wiggins’s third time-trial victory of the year sees him climb on to the final step of the podium, 22 seconds down on champion-elect Van Baarle, who finished 11th on the stage, with Kwiatkowski sixth.
Wiggins said afterwards: “I’m pleased to have won the time trial in London. That was obviously the goal at the start of the week as well as the GC. I’m up to third now so it’s not a bad defence of the title. I’m just pleased to be back in London racing and winning.
“It’s been a really exciting race and it’s been changing every day. Who would have predicted this at the start of the week? Now Dylan van Baarle is going to run out the overall winner. When you look at how tough the race has been, whoever won it was going to deserve it."
Ryan Mullen (An Post-Chain Reaction) was the early leader when he set a mark of 10min 10sec, but that was eclipsed when Cummings (BMC Racing) became the first man to dip under ten minutes with a mark of 9min 59sec.
Chavanel (IAM Cycling) shaved a second off that, but his lead immediately looked in danger when Wiggins made a flying start and was two seconds in front by the half-way point.
He stretched that advantage further on the run back down the Victoria Embankment to the finish line, underlining his fine time-trialling form ahead of the world championships later this month.
He added: “I came in a bit short of race days. I certainly felt I was lacking a bit at the start of the week, but I have just got better every day. I feel like I have started to come into some good shape at the end of it. It has been probably the toughest Tour of Britain I have ridden.
“I’m feeling good ahead of the worlds. All my training has been towards that so it’s good to confirm my form with a win in a time trial, even though it was only a short one.”
Stage 8a result
1 Sir Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky, 9:50
2 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) IAM Cycling, +8sec
3 Stephen Cummings (GB) BMC, +9
4 Jan Barta (Cze) NetApp - Endura, +14
5 Matthias Brandle (Aut) IAM Cycling, +15
6 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma – Quick-Step, +16
7 Ryan Mullen (Ire) An Port-Chain Reaction, +20
8 Alex Dowsett (GB) Movistar, same time
9 Chris Juul-Jensen (Den) Tinkoff-Saxo, +24
10 Martin Kohler (Swi) BMC Racing, +25
Selected other
11 Dylan van Baarle (Ned) Garmin-Sharp, st
General classification
1 Dylan van Baarle (Ned) Garmin-Sharp, 30:32:17
2 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma - Quick-Step, +10sec
3 Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky, +22
4 Edoardo Zardini (Ita) Bardiani - CSF, +37
5 Nicolas Roche (Ire) Tinkoff-Saxo, +42
6 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Movistar, +46
7 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) IAM Cycling, +50
8 Alex Dowsett (GB) Movistar, +54
9 Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC Racing, +1:10
10 David Lopez (Spa) Team Sky, +1:11
