Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome did everything and more than could have been expected of them in today's time trial. Wiggins has now taken a firm grasp on the leadership, even though there is a long way to go to Paris with all the high mountain stages to come.
Wiggins won the stage by 35 seconds from Chris Froome followed by Fabian Cancellara (57 secs), Tejay Van Garderen (1.06 - enough to take back the White jersey for best young rider), Sylvain Chavanel (1.24), Cadel Evans (1.43 – exactly the same time as Cadel lost on the Dauphiné over 53.5K rather than 41.5K), Peter Velts (1.59), Vincenzo Nibali (2.07), Denis Menchov (2.08) and Andreas Klöden (2.09).
Wiggins took over a minute out of Evans in the first 16.5 kilometres (10 miles) but by the second checkpoint (31.5) the gap had only increased to 1.19, so Evans looked as though he was stablising his losses. However, I suspect that Wiggins was holding something in reserve for the final third where he pulled out a further 24 seconds on Cadel.
Cadel Evans couldn't surely have expected to lose as much time on Wiggins today. The result leaves him nearly two minutes behind Bradley and, if he is going to win this year's Tour, Evans is going to have to take a lot of time out of Wiggins in the mountains and now he has Froome only 14 seconds behind him.
Going into the rest day tomorrow some big gaps overall have opened up:
1. Bradley Wiggins
2. Cadel Evans 1.53
3. Chris Froome 2.07
4. Vincenzo Nibali 2.23
5. Denis Menchov 3.02
6. Haimar Zubeldia 3.19
7. Maxime Monfort 4.23
8. Tejay Van Garderen 5.14
9. Jurgen Van den Broeck 5.20
10. Nicolas Roche 5.29
***
Lance Armstrong has launched a legal action against USADA. Story here.
Update: Judge has dismissed Armstong's action but he may file again within 20 days. Story here.
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