Gustav Larsson of Sweden benefited from good road conditions to beat Bradley Wiggins and win the first stage of the Paris-Nice cycling race, a 9.4km individual time trial from Dampierre en Yvelines on Sunday.
The Vacansoleil rider Larsson, the Beijing Olympics time-trial silver medallist, clocked 11min 19sec to beat Team Sky's Wiggins by one second after the Briton started in a light drizzle that made the roads slippery. The American Levi Leipheimer was third, four seconds off the pace, for Omega Pharma-Quickstep.
Wiggins was far from disappointed on missing out on the win. "My goal is the GC [general classification], not to win this time trial and I took no risks in the bends. So I'm happy with this," said the Briton.
Larsson said: "We made the right choice by starting in the middle of the field. It was much better than for the guys at the end. I wasn't really sure of myself because it was only my second race this season. My legs were very hard but, as good as they were, it did it."
Asked he if could win the race, Larsson, the tallest rider in the peloton at 1.94m, was not optimistic. "We will see, it's very hard when you get to the big mountains but we will try to hang on to it as long as possible," he said.
Luxembourg's Andy Schleck, who will be handed the 2010 Tour de France title after Alberto Contador was banned for failing a dope test during the race, once again produced a mediocre performance against the clock, finishing 142nd, 1:01 off the pace.
The Spaniard Alejandro Valverde, back this season after a doping ban and one of the pre-race favourites, finished a disappointing 41st, 30 seconds off the pace. Germany's Tony Martin, who started the day as leading favourite with Wiggins, was 28th, 25 seconds behind Larsson.
The "Race to the Sun" ends in Nice next Sunday.
