Britain’s Sir Bradley Wiggins finished third at the 2014 Tour of Britain after winning the penultimate time trial stage in London as Dylan van Baarle topped the general classification.
Team Sky rider and British time trial champion Wiggins completed the 8.8-kilometre course on stage 8a in nine minutes and 50 seconds, 25 seconds quicker than Garmin-Sharp’s van Baarle.
The result left Baarle with an advantage of 22 seconds on Wiggins in the battle for the Friends Life Yellow Jersey heading into the final stage 8b.
The 88-kilometre stage in a city-centre circuit ended in the expected sprint finish as Mark Cavendish finished second behind German Marcel Kittel.
"I’m happy, I was a bit short on race days coming into this, there was an element of unknown," Wiggins, 34, said.
"I’d trained hard before it and got myself into good shape after the Commonwealth Games. To come back and get on the podium and win the time trial in London, I’m pretty pleased with that."
Britain’s Mark McNally had already wrapped up the Skoda King of the Mountains Jersey as Michał Kwiatkowski took the Chain Reaction Cycles Points Jersey. Seb Lander won the YodelDirect Sprints Jersey.
Nineteen-year-old Great Britain Cycling Team rider Tao Geoghagen Hart was an impressive 15th overall in his first-ever Tour of Britain.
Entering the final day, which saw two stages in central London, the morning’s time trial was the last realistic opportunity for van Baarle to be overthrown in the general classification.
Wiggins, in his British champion’s jersey, began the day 47 seconds back on the Dutchman and went fastest on the flat course with Baarle out last as leader.
He was unable to better Wiggins’ effort but 11th was enough for the 22-year-old to keep the race lead. Stephen Cummings added a second British rider to the stage podium, taking third behind Sylvain Chavanel.
In the afternoon’s final stage, a five-man group featuring Great Britain’s Chris Latham and Stephen Cummings broke away on lap four of ten with their lead hovering at the 35-second mark.
By the final lap the quintet had become a duo of Latham and Andreas Stauff with a lead of just 15 seconds and they were caught to leave a sprint finish.
Cavendish latched on to Kittel’s wheel in the final 100m and the Manxman came around the German but was beaten to the line by less than a wheel length.
Results
Stage 8a
Stage 8b
Tour of Britain Friends Life Yellow Jersey classification
Tour of Britain Skoda King of the Mountains classification
Tour of Britain YodelDirect Sprints classification
Tour of Britain Chain Reaction Cycles Points classification
