Bradley Wiggins (Sky) made his first competitive outing in world champion stripes in the Tour of Qatar time trial on Tuesday, but was beaten to the stage win.
Wiggins posted a time of 14 minutes and 12 seconds around the exposed 10.9-kilometre course, but only had a short stay in the hotseat as he was first beaten by Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing), then defending champion Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep) blew everyone away with a blistering ride.
Last year's Paris-Roubaix winner Terpstra now moves into the overall race lead after his stage win, 11 secs ahead of Maciej Bodnar (Tinkoff-Saxo). Ian Stannard (Sky) put in a strong ride to finish fifth on the stage and move up to third overall.
Niki Terpstra says he thought that Bradley Wiggins would 'beat everyone by 40 seconds' in the Tour of Qatar stage
Stannard's Sky team-mate and British compatriot Luke Rowe also rode well to finish 15th, and now sits fifth overall and leads the best young rider classification.
The flat, short course suited power riders as much as the time trial specialists, creating a top 10 that could also serve as who's who of 2015 classics contenders. Worthy of note is that former Hour Record holder Matthias Brändle (IAM) placed sixth.
