Bradley Wiggins claimed third place in the Tour of Qatar time trial while big rides from Ian Stannard and Luke Rowe saw them jump into the top five overall.

World time trial champion Wiggins gave his new rainbow jersey its debut on stage three and tore around the 10-kilometre course in a time of 14 minutes and 12 seconds.

That put the Brit into the lead briefly but the benchmark was moved on by Fabian Cancellara and a storming time from eventual stage winner Niki Terpstra.

The Dutchman led home the GC contenders but Stannard moved himself firmly into the equation with fifth on the day, 10 seconds back on Terpstra (Etixx – Quick-Step) and just a single second behind team-mate Wiggins.

That result elevated Stannard to third place overall, 12 seconds back on the gold jersey of Terpstra, while a gutsy ride from Luke Rowe pushed the Welshman into fifth place. 33 seconds back, that was enough for the 24 year old to pull on the Young Rider’s jersey.

Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) bettered Wiggins by two seconds to round out the day’s podium, but there was no stopping Terpstra who takes an 11-second lead into the second half of the race.

“Unfortunately, the world of cycling puts a massive emphasis on this race,” Wiggins told CyclingWeekly. “But everybody’s at different stages of preparation.

“We’ve not done any racing, so you don’t know where they’re at. It was only a month ago we were all drinking and getting fat at Christmas and then you come here looking to do a world-class performance.

“[Tom] Boonen and that are always good here, Fabian [Cancellara] has been up and down the last few years.

“This time last year I was scraping around the back of Ruta del Sol, I always come back to think where I was, and where I am. April is a long way away; I’m pleased to be fairly close today.”

Wiggins will next ride in the rainbow jersey at the Paris-Nice while his final outing will come at the Three Days of De Panne.

“It’s a dream, but there’s still a process with time trialling, whether you’re time trial champion or not. It doesn’t always work out,” added the 34-year-old.

“There are a few more opportunities yet before you start writing about the curse of the rainbow jersey.”

“There were some good rides from the guys today," Sport Director Servais Knaven told TeamSky.com after the stage.

"Brad and Ian finishing third and fifth, Luke in 15th and Christian (Knees) in 22nd. They did a good job and we’ve obviously got a couple of good GC positions now with Ian and Luke. We can be really happy with that.

“It’s great to see Ian back up there at a really good level after his crashes last year. It was really windy today – probably more windy than the last few days – so it was a really tough time trial.

“We’ve got some good positions now but we’re also looking at how we can move up. Bodnar is just one second ahead of Ian and Terpstra is only 12 seconds away. Quick-Step have a strong team but our guys are strong too. Anything can happen. But at the same time there are strong guys behind us too who are fast finishers. It’s not finished yet but we’re in a good position.”