Taylor Phinney had made the Tour of California time trial one of his big goals but he was firmly beaten by a superior Bradley Wiggins. The American admitted that the Brit had been in a class of his own and will now ride in support of Peter Stetina who had a difficult time and lost a lot of time to the Sky rider.

BMC Racing Team's Taylor Phinney finished third behind Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) and runner-up Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) Monday in the Stage 2 individual time trial of the Amgen Tour of California. Phinney was the last of the three to start the 20.1-kilometer race against the clock after Dennis clocked the best time early (24:02), only to see Wiggins go 44 seconds faster.

Phinney was 32 seconds off Wiggins's pace at the halfway point and finished 52 seconds back of the 2012 Tour de France champion.

"It was not my best ride," Phinney said. "I wasn't feeling amazing the whole time. I think Wiggins was in a whole other category. It just is was it is. You put it out there. You throw the vibe out there and see what you get back. It's not exactly what I wanted, but whatever.

"The climb out was difficult, but it was early and I was feeling pretty good in that moment. It was an interesting distance. It's not as aerobic as a longer, 40- or 50-minute time trial and not as anaerobic as a prologue. So it was kind of an interesting distance to wrap your head around.

"When he [Wiggins] is in top form, he's in top form. He's been thinking about this for awhile because it's important for him. I mean it's an impressive ride, and it kind of puts everybody else to shame. So yeah, chapeau to him."

BMC Racing Team Sport Director Max Sciandri agreed Wiggins was in a league of his own.

"Obviously, we were competing against the best – an Olympic champion and a Tour de France winner," he said. "So when you look at where we're at, it's pretty good."

Sciandri said he will evaluate each rider's performance before formulating a game plan for Tuesday's 174.6-km stage, the first of two mountain-top finishes of the eight-day race. After Phinney, Larry Warbasse was next best for the BMC Racing Team in 23rd, 1:54 behind.

Four others were within 2:30 of Wiggins: Greg Van Avermaet (26th, at 1:58), Martin Kohler (43rd, at 2:24), Amaël Moinard (47th, at 2:27) and Peter Stetina (49th, 2:30). 

"Peter was good in terms of where the climbers were, with the exception of Wiggins," Sciandri said. "We will reset today and look at everything: we will look at the numbers, we will look at the performances. We will kind of absorb today and then go into tomorrow."