Tour leader Wiggins in ‘fantastic position’ after race against clock but taking nothing for granted

Wiggins (Team Sky) clocked 51 minutes 24 seconds to triumph on the 41.5-km race against the clock from Arc-et-Senans to Besancon, enhancing his hold on the fabled maillot jaune with his first Tour stage success.

The 32-year-old triple Olympic gold medal winner now leads defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) by 1min 53secs entering today’s rest day, the first of this year’s Tour.

Evans entered the day 10 seconds behind Wiggins, but finished sixth on the stage to lose 1:43 as the Briton took pole position in the race to Paris on Sunday week. Wiggins’s team-mate Chris Froome placed second in 51:59 to move up to third overall, 2:07 behind.

Despite his comfortable lead ahead of tomorrow’s resumption, the 194.5km 10th stage from Macon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, Wiggins is taking nothing for granted.

“It’s never over until the fat lady sings and she hasn’t entered the room yet,” Wiggins said. “This is just another day at the Tour. There’s a long way to go. It’s a fantastic position to be in, but there’s always the possibility of a bad day. This race is far from over. Cadel is not going to give up until Paris.”

Froome displaced Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) in the top three, with the Italian 2:23 adrift in fourth and Evans Team Sky’s nearest rival.

Wiggins added: “Cadel is far from finished. He will fight every inch of the way and I’m only human, I’m not a machine. There’s always the possibility of a bad day.

“So far, so good and we’ll just continue doing what we’re doing.

“It’s about being good for 21 days. I’ve been consistently good for the last few days and I have a good lead now.

“It’s just about not getting too carried away. We have to forget about this very fast – you start dwelling on your success and that’s when things start going wrong.

“We get back up in two days’ time and start from zero again.”

Wiggins received the backing of Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford for his expletive-laden rant after stage seven in response to anonymous critics’ claims success in cycling is based on doping. It was an emotional reaction which prompted much debate.

Speaking to French television immediately after his win yesterday, he said: “I’m not sorry for (Sunday), it was my passion coming through.”

Wiggins has already won the Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie and Criterium du Dauphine stage races this season and is now firmly in pole position to be the first British Tour winner – and Froome could join him on the podium.

Much of Wiggins’s current successful streak is owed to his proficiency against the clock, formed from his days on the track, and he led at every time check yesterday in a scintillating display.

The 99th edition of the Tour features over 100km of time-trials and the 53.5km test which takes place on Saturday week, the penultimate day of the race, is the final opportunity to take time – the Alps and Pyrenees must be negotiated first, though.

It was also a useful pointer for the 44km August 1 Olympic time-trial. Wiggins and Froome are Britain’s Olympic time-trial selections and beat 2008 Games champion Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) into third place.

On Saturday, when Froome won stage seven, Wiggins succeeded prologue winner Cancellara in the maillot jaune.

To become the third Team Sky rider – after world champion Mark Cavendish and Froome – to win a stage of the Tour was a highlight for Wiggins, whose goal yesterday morning was to take a minute off Evans.

He added: “I hadn’t even thought about winning the stage; it’s all just been about the GC (general classification).

“It’s like Christmas when you’re a kid. It’s brilliant.

“That was probably my best ever time-trial.”