Cadel Evans climbs to second overall in Tour of Italy

FORMER Tour de France winner Cadel Evans rose to second in the standings of the Giro d'Italia with a solid performance in the individual time trial.

Cadel-Evans

FORMER Tour de France winner Cadel Evans rose to second in the overall standings of the Giro d'Italia with a solid performance in the individual time trial.

Evans managed seventh fastest time, 39 seconds behind British winner Alex Dowsett who clocked 1hr 16min 27sec.

Fellow Australian Luke Durbridge was sixth at 35sec.

Vincenzo Nibali took over the leader's pink jersey by finishing fourth at 21sec.

The Italian leads BMC rider Evans by 29 seconds overall.

The 54.8 kilometre race against the clock was seen as an ideal opportunity Olympic time trial champion Bradley Wiggins to make up time after a tough opening week.

But the Team Sky leader, who hit the deck on a rain-drenched hairpin on Friday, had to settle for the runners-up spot, crossing the line 10 seconds adrift of Dowsett to leave him fourth overall, 1min 16sec off new leader Nibali.

The Sicilian was surprised to find himself as the new leader, saying: "I wasn't expecting to be wearing the pink jersey today. I worked a lot with this in mind over the winter.

"Now we will go about defending the pink jersey, I'm feeling comfortable."

Dowsett, 24, who switched to Movistar this year after two seasons with Team Sky, has twice won the British time trial title.

Reflecting on another tough day in Italy Wiggins told his team's official website: "It wasn't an easy course. I've said all along that it wasn't one of those ones where you could take three or four minutes out of people because it was so technical at the start.

"Then obviously to have a puncture and have to change bikes and disrupt the rhythm is never going to help.

"It's going to be a hell of a race for the next two weeks."

The big losers were overnight leader Benat Intxausti, who plummeted down the standings to 14th, over three and a half minutes adrift, and Ryder Hesjedel of Canada.

Last year's winner started the day placed third, at 8sec, overall, but slipped to sixth, 2:05 behind Nibali at the end of his run.

Sunday's ninth stage is a 170km run from Sansepolcro to Florence, which hosts the world road championships in September.