Wiggins Dominates Stage 20 of Tour de France
Team Sky has put an exclamation point on the 2012 Tour de France.
Team Sky has put an exclamation point on the 2012 Tour de France. Bradley Wiggins dominated Stage 19, a flat, 53.5-km individual time trial from Bonneval to Chartres, winning in 1:04:13. Christopher Froome, Wiggins's teammate, finished second at 1:16, and Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) grabbed third at 1:50. Wiggins has lengthened his lead in the Tour and is poised to win the race when it concludes in Paris tomorrow.
Patrick Gretsch (Argos-Shimano) set the early standard with a 1:06:41. Gretsch led the stage for nearly two hours, until Spanish time trial champion Sanchez posted a 1:06:03. No one expected either time to stand, given that Wiggins and Froome were the last starters.
Sanchez, however, remained the leader for the next two and a half hours. Only Slovak time trial champion Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) got close to the Spaniard when he posted a 1:06:15. That changed, however, when Wiggins and Froome started.
Tejay van Garderen (BMC) posted the fastest time at the first checkpoint and overtook his three-minute man, BMC team captain and defending champion Cadel Evans, shortly after the second time check. The best young rider in this year's Tour lost momentum but rode well enough to finish seventh at 2:34.
Froome went through the first time check 0:23 ahead of van Garderen and was 0:04 faster than Sanchez at the second checkpoint. At the third checkpoint, he was 0:22 ahead of Sanchez. At that point, however, Wiggins was in high gear.
Wiggins was 0:12 faster than his teammate at the first checkpoint and 0:54 faster at the second. The Sky team captain finished 1:16 faster than Froome.
In the overall, Wiggins leads Froome by 3:21 and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) by 6:19. Tomorrow, Wiggins will take his ceremonial procession on the Champs Elysees in Stage 20, a flat, 120-km run from Rambouillet to Paris. In addition, the sprinters will get one last chance to shine. Who will win? Mark Cavendish (Sky)? Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale)? Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol)? Check in at www.roadcycling.com and find out!
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