SALTARA (Italy): Briton Alex Dowsett stole the limelight from compatriot and former team-mate Bradley Wiggins in the Tour of Italy’s Eighth Stage time trial on Saturday with Italian Vincenzo Nibali inheriting the leader’s pink jersey.

This 54.8km race against the clock was seen as an ideal opportunity for Wiggins, the Olympic time trial gold medallist, to make up time after a tough opening week for the Team Sky leader.

But Wiggins, who hit the deck on a rain-drenched hairpin on Friday, had another setback when his front tyre punctured 17 minutes into his run, delaying him by a stage-winning 20 seconds as he changed bikes.

That left him filling second, crossing the line 10 seconds adrift of Dowsett (Movistar) to leave him 1:16 off the new leader Nibali, who took fourth in the stage.

In the overall standings, Sicilian Nibali leads by 29 seconds from Cadel Evans, with Dutch rider Robert Gesink in third at 1:15 and Wiggins, who finished strongly on the climb up to Saltara, in fourth.

Reflecting on another tough day in Italy Wiggins told his team’s official website: “I think there was some initial disappointment because I wanted to win the stage.

“It’s been a challenging few days with the crash yesterday and then to come back up. It wasn’t an easy course. I’ve said all along that it wasn’t one of those ones where you could take three or four minutes out of people because it was so technical at the start.

“Then obviously to have a puncture and have to change bikes and disrupt the rhythm is never going to help. But then the second part of the course was really suited to me and I took back a lot of time on people there. It is what it is and it’s put us right back up there now.

“It’s going to be a hell of a race for the next two weeks.”

Nibali was surprised to find himself as the new leader, saying: “I wasn’t expecting to be wearing the pink jersey today. I worked a lot with this in mind over the winter.

“Now we will go about defending the pink jersey, I’m feeling comfortable.”

Dowsett, 24, who switched to Movistar this year after two seasons with Team Sky, is the British time trial champion.

The big losers of the day were overnight leader Benat Intxausti, who plummeted down the standings to 14th, over three and a half minutes adrift.— AFP

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