Team Sky’s Sir Bradley Wiggins took the individual time trial win yesterday in stage two of the Amgen Tour of California.
Sir Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain riding for Team Sky races the individual time trial to victory in stage two and takes the overall race lead in the 2014 Amgen Tour of California on May 12. Photo: Doug Pensinger / Getty Images
Wiggins’ easy victory in 23 minutes, 18 seconds came a day after fellow British star Mark Cavendish won the opening stage in Sacramento in the closest finish in the tour’s nine-year history.
But here come the mountains. And just in time for rising temperatures in the Bay Area that threaten to turn the weeklong event into an overheated exercise in survival.
“I think there is only so much the human body can take,” said Wiggins, who in 2012 became the first Englishman to win a Tour de France.
Wiggins, 34, has a 44-second lead over Garmin-Sharp’s Rohan Dennis of Australia, who was second in the time trial. But Wiggins will take a sizable lead over the other favourites as they head into the “Queens Stage” on Tuesday that starts at Lake Cunningham in San Jose and ends with a 10.8-mile climb to Mount Diablo’s summit.
The 108½-mile course also includes a climb over Mount Hamilton. With temperatures forecast in the mid-90s, the riders could suffer mightily as they try to take the jersey from the only man to win the Tour de France and Olympic gold medal in the same year.
Wiggins followed his Tour victory in 2012 with a gold medal in the time trial at the London Games.
After an injury-plagued season last year, the Team Sky star showed just why he is considered one of the greatest cyclists of his generation.
He tore through the 12.6-mile course that ended in downtown Folsom as if he were driving along the Bonneville Flats.
Santa Rosa-based Peter Stetina worried before the tour that Wiggins might build a 2-minute lead on him during the time trial.
He wished. The BMC Racing leader is 2½ minutes behind heading into the pivotal stage for the big climbers. Wiggins has command of the tour that ends Sunday in Thousand Oaks.
“I knew I was good coming in this race, but you never can account for how other people are going to do,” he said.
Tuesday’s local stage:
Stage three (“Queens Stage”): 108.5 miles from San Jose to summit of Mount Diablo
Start time: 10:45 a.m.; TV: 2 p.m., NBCSN
Key climb: 4,216-foot Mount Hamilton – Mercury News
