Welcome to live coverage of stage eight of the Giro d'Italia - a 54.8km individual time trial along winding coastal roads from Gabicce Mare to Saltara. It's a tricky parcours with a nasty climb right at the end - but it has Britain's Bradley Wiggins' name all over it.

So, we expected one Briton on the podium but got another. Congratulations to Alex Dowsett for the biggest win of his career - justified his leaving Sky to join Movistar this season. It's now all to play for in the GC, with Wiggins going into the mountains down on Nibali, the new maglia rosa.

General classification: 1. Nibali, 2. Evans +29, 3. Gesink +1:15, 4. Wiggins +1:16, 5. Scarponi +1:24, 6. Hesjedal +2:05, 7. Henao +2:11, 8. Santambrogio +2:43, 9, Niemiec +2:44, 10. Uran +2:49.

Result: 1. Dowsett, 2. Wiggins +10, 3. Kangert +14, 4. Nibali +21, 5. Clement +32, 6. Durbridge +35, 7. Evans +39, 8. Boaro +45, 9. Henao +53, 10, Scarponi +53.

Benat Intxausti will plummet down the standings today. He was well down before the second split ahead of the climb - and he might ship a few minutes here now. Could well be five minutes - he still has 1.2km. So it will be the pink jersey to Nibali and the stage win to Dowsett today. Yes, here's Intaxusti - it's 41st and 4:01 down on the stage winner.

Nibali will lose time to Wiggins - but nowhere near as much as he expected to. In fact, just 11 seconds. The Italian sets the 4th fastest time, 21 seconds down on Dowsett, who has won today's stage because Intxausti is nowhere near competing for the stage.

Hesjedal croses the line 2:23 down on Dowsett, who surely has it in the bag now.

Hesjedal is into the final kilometre and the defending champion will lose quite a bit of time today.

Nibali has slowed on the mid-section: he's in sixth place at 1:07 from Dowsett at the second check.

Hesjedal is quite far down at the second check: 16th place at 2:44. But he will have kept something back for the final climb, for sure.

Alex Dowsett has just tweeted from the winner's enclosure: "Not long now. This wait is agonising! Thank you so much for all the kind messages." Will he hold on to take a famous victory?

Cadel Evans digs deep on the last climb but he can only take provisional sixth, 39 seconds down on Dowsett. Just five more riders to finish now.

Robert Gesink was ninth at the finish, 1:22 down on Dowsett.

Evans has slipped back quite a bit: he's only eighth fastest at the second split, 1:33 down on Dowsett ahead of the big final climb.

Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel) crosses the line more than three minutes down on Alex Dowsett of Movistar, the current leader.

Nibali will be the race leader tonight if he continues his barnstorming ride - but the telling point will be the second intermediate sprint, because we know that this is a course that gets harder. Remember, Evans is going well too. At first check it was 1. Nibali, 2. Dowsett +8, 3. Evans +30.

The pink jersey of Benat Intxausti lost 1:05 at the first check. That sounds bad - but Wiggins was one-minute down on Nibali's time but finished well. Either way, with Nibali riding so well, the Spaniard will lose the maglia rosa today.

WIGGINS UPDATE: Team Sky have denied that Wiggins is sick and denied that he crashed during the time trial.

Like Wiggins, Scarponi puts in am impressive shift on the final climb. The Italian crosses the line 53 seconds down in eighth. He'll settle for losing only 43 seconds to Wiggins - more than he could have ever hoped for.

Hesjedal looks to be suffering on an uphill drag. He takes a swig of water and struggles in the wrong gear. He was 51 seconds down at the first check.

Scarponi has faded quite considerably. The Italian veteran is 1:39 down on the second check.