Sir Bradley Wiggins thwarted in Tour of California stage six time trial

Sir Bradley Wiggins was riding his first road time trial since April 2015

Sir Bradley Wiggins' hopes of winning the individual time trial at the Amgen Tour of California were scuppered on Friday night by a broken handlebar.

The former Olympic and world time trial champion triumphed on an almost identical 20km course two years ago and was looking for a repeat in what was his first time trial on the road in almost 15 months.

But one of his aero bars snapped when he hit a bump in the road and he consequently could only limp his bike home in 92nd place, 3min 41sec down on winner Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing).

Wiggins still managed to catch Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), who had set off a minute before, and the pair crossed the line in close proximity.

One of Wiggins' handlebars snapped when he hit a bump in the road

Alex Wasserman, who was following in the WIGGINS team car, said: "On the transition over the bridge, there was a point there with some pretty bumpy sections. Brad was hitting out because it sounded like he really wanted to go for the day.

"He hit a really solid piece and it cracked off his extension. But he gutted it out. His head is out of the race at that point, but he rode the rest of the race on the cowhorns and just finished it off."

Wiggins is riding the Tour of California mainly to build endurance for racing on the track at this summer's Olympic Games. He is now 126th in the general classification, 1hr 4min 55sec off the overall lead.

His team-mate Owain Doull was Britain's best performer on stage six's time trial, briefly leading with his time of 25min 21sec before eventually finishing 1min 5sec down in 14th.

Owain Doull was Britain's best finisher on the Folsom course

Fellow Briton Tao Geoghegan Hart (Axeon Hagens Berman) continued his fine week by finishing 1min 27sec down in 22nd, on the same time but just ahead of Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing).

Reigning world time trial champion Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky) was sixth, 44 seconds adrift of the winner. 

Dennis beat runner-up Andrew Talansky (Cannondale) by 17 seconds, but his victory was not enough to prise the overall race lead from Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx - Quick-Step), who produced a strong performance to finish 45 seconds down in eighth.

Dennis is now 16 seconds down in second place in the general classification, while Geoghegan Hart is 2min 55sec adrift in 14th with two stages remaining.

Stage six result

1 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing, 24:16

2 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale, +17sec

3 Taylor Phinney (USA) BMC Racing, +20

4 Soren Kragh Andersen (Den) Giant-Alpecin, +33

5 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing, +43

General classification

1 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx - Quick-Step, 24:26:46

2 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing, +16sec

3 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing, +38

4 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale, +47

5 Neilson Powless (USA) Axeon Hagens Berman, +1:08