If anyone thought that Bradley Wiggins (Sky) was washed up, they were forced to reconsider as the 2012 Tour de France winner demolished the field in the 37km final time trial in the Tour of Poland. It was a qualified field that Wiggins crushed, with Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Leopard) second, 56 seconds slower.

Stage four winner Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing) took third on the day, 1’14” down on Wiggins, who now must be a very clear and present danger to Tony Martin in the world time trial championship race.

Phinney’s team-mate Marco Pinotti clocked the early best mark at both the intermediate time check and the finish line. In fact, Pinotti’s mark at the intermediate point would remain the best of the day, as even Wiggins failed to best the time set by Pinotti. However, Wiggins rectified that as he blasted the opposition on the return half of the course. On the line, Pinotti would take fourth, in 47’56”. This meant that the British rider made up a minute and 22 seconds on Pinotti in the flat second portion of the course.

The gaps between the general classification men were razor thin going into the time trial.

At the end of the day, Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge) walked away with arguably the biggest overall triumph of his career, erasing a 27-second deficit to Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale) to take the WorldTour victory. Riblon conceded no less than 43 seconds to the Dutchman and dropped to third overall. Jon Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) finished his effort strongly to maintain second place overall, finishing 13 seconds behind Weening overall.


Tour of Poland stage 7:

1, Brad Wiggins (Sky Procycling)
2, Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Leopard)
3, Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing)
4, Marco Pinotti (BMC Racing)
5, Kristof Vandewalle (Omega Pharma-Quick Step)
6, Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge)
7, Jon Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi)
8, Dominik Nerz (BMC Racing)
9, Sergey Chernetski (Katusha)
10, Rafal Majka (Saxo-Tinkoff)

Final General Classification:

1, Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge)
2, Jon Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) at 13”
3, Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale) at 16”
4, Rafal Majka (Saxo-Tinkoff) at 26”
5, Sergio Henao (Sky Procycling) at 51”
6, Eros Capecchi (Movistar)
7, Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale)
8, Ivan Basso (Cannondale)
9, Tanel Kangert (Astana)
10, Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo-Tinkoff)