Adam Hansen wins in awful conditions that seen Bradley Wiggins struggle. Photograph: Sirotti
I mentioned that following the team-time-trial, Bradley Wiggins was in great shape in the early going of this Giro 2013. He had gained time on his rivals and if he could only sustain it to the weekend he could really seize control in the individual time-trial. Yet he lost bonus seconds to Ryder Hesjedal and Cadel Evans a day later, he lost 17 seconds the day after that when he got held up in a crash and, following a few quiet days in which sprinters John Degenkolb and Mark Cavendish took the spoils, it all came apart when he crashed on a descent near the finish of the stage and never regained contact with the GC group, losing 1 minute, 24 seconds.
And it wasn't just the crash that caused him. The hard racing actually put the 2012 Tour de France winner into a little bit of trouble. A lumpy stage in terrible weather didn't appear to sit well with Wiggins and as his rivals pushed forward, Wiggins could be seen slipping back a little. He tried to get himself together on the descent of the days final climb -- climbs that it should be pointed out are far from the big ones we'll see later in this Giro -- but crashed on a wet hairpin. As a result he looked timid the rest of the way and coughed up what essentially could have been his gain in tomorrow's time-trial.
What I mean by that is that Wiggins might have been expected to take up to 1 minute 24 seconds out of the rest in tomorrow's time-trial, yet now finds himself needing to do that just to get back on terms with them in the GC. This was huge for his rivals who clearly aware of what damage he could do against the clock have spent a couple of days this week attacking hard and trying to force the issue.
It's made for spectacular racing and what it means for the spectators is that following tomorrow's time-trial the race could well be nicely packed going into the mountains as opposed to Wiggin's carrying the big lead we thought he might after his team took time from the rest in the team-time-trial.
The Giro lead changed again today as a result of the madness of the stage. Benat Intxausti is in Pink, five seconds up on Vicenzo Nibali and eight seconds on Ryder Hesjedal. The big Canadian has to be feeling good about himself and his chances of being in Pink after tomorrow and going into the first proper mountains stage.
And a word to Australian Adam Hansen who was part of an early break that he then got away from himself to win the stage solo as the only man in the picture. For all the drama today meant for the general classification, the man of the day was Hansen who put in a magnificent ride.
