Niki Terpstra wins stage three in Qatar, Bradley Wiggins third

Team Sky’s Wiggins, who was tipped by many for victory during stage three’s individual time trial, was wearing his world champion’s rainbow jersey for the first time but could not secure victory in Losail.

Wiggins clocked a time of 14 minutes and 12 seconds during the 10km course, crossing the line nine seconds slower than winner Terpstra and one second adrift of Fabian Cancellara.

The result sees defending champion Terpstra move to the top of the general classification, opening up an 11-second gap over second-placed Maciej Bodnar, who completed stage three in the same time as Wiggins.

Wiggins’ third-place finish sees the the34-year-old climb to 78th in the overall standings but is out of contention for the win, 10 minutes and two seconds behind Terpstra.

On the win, the Dutchman said: “The victory is a bit of a surprise. I was just going for a good time trial to move up in the classification. But it went so well I ended up with the stage win as well.

“If you see the guys that are riding here, it is a really strong peloton with some time-trial specialists, such as Cancellara and Bradley Wiggins. So, it's awesome to get a victory with such big competition. Now the goal is to keep the gold jersey.”