Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) stormed to victory in stage four of the Bayern-Rundfahrt, blasting around the 26 kilometer course in Friedberg with a time of 30 minutes and 8 seconds to beat world champion Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek) into second place by more than half a minute. Rounding out the podium was Team Sky’s Edvald Boasson Hagen, who won the opening stage earlier this week.
Wiggins’ time never looked in jeopardy as the riders took to the course, with the Briton pleased to have accomplished his mission. “The goal all week for me was to look at the time trial,” he said in a team release. “It wasn’t flat but it was rolling and not really technical at all, so it’s fantastic that it’s come off.
“All week has just been incredible though, we’ve all been riding for each other and helping one another. It started with working for Edvald in the sprints and then we managed to get G into that break yesterday which put him in a great position for the GC,” he said.
Despite losing riders, the team stayed motivated.
“Even when we were down to five guys we still didn’t miss a move and were covering everything,” Wiggins explained. “And then today was about going out to try and win a stage and also for G to try and win the GC [General Classification] so it panned out brilliantly.”
To cap off the day for the British team, the overall lead was also taken over by a Team Sky rider, with Geraint Thomas finishing the test against the clock in fifth, enough to move himself to the top of the standings.
With the Tour de France fast approaching, Wiggins was pleased with Sky’s performance. “There’s probably 50% of the Tour [de France] team here for us and it’s just a great sign really. We’re all racing together a bit more regularly as a team this year and know each other inside out which always helps.”
Tomorrow’s final stage runs 150 kilometers between Friedberg and Moosburg and should see Team Sky able to control the race. Thomas leads Team Saxo Bank-Sungard’s Nicki Sørensen by 19 seconds in the general classification with HTC-Highroad’s Michael Albasini another 4 seconds back in third.