Wiggins switches back to stage race mode at the Giro del Trentino

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Bradley Wiggins was first over the finish line for Team Sky at the Giro del Trentino making him the provisional race leader until the NetApp-Endura and BMC teams reached the finish and set faster times.

BMC won the 13.4km time trial in a time of 14:12, with NetApp-Endura five seconds slower and Team Sky was third with a time of 14:21. Daniel Oss was the first BMC to the finish and so pulled on the race leader's pink jersey, while Wiggins was also called to the podium to pull on the red sprints jersey.

Just over a week ago, Wiggins was fighting on the pave at Paris-Roubaix, finishing ninth after an aggressive ride. He has already switched back to stage racing mode as he prepares for the Amgen Tour of California and revealed to Cyclingnews that he arrived from Mallorca where he has been training hard and working to lose weight so he can competitive in California in May.

"I've been trying to get back in the routine for these race, for stage races, after being in Belgium and not really doing much between the big days of racing," Wiggins told Cyclingnews before climbing onto the podium and spraying the crowd with the Italian Spumante.

"I've had a tough couple of days after training hard but once I did my warm up I felt good. It's always hard to judge how you feel but I could tell that not much has changed since last Sunday."

Team Sky started the Giro del Trentino with just six riders instead of eight, making their third place even more respectable. Dario Cataldo and Kanstantsin Siutsou are expected to have leadership roles for Team Sky this week, while Wiggins continues to work for the Tour of California.

"We've got other riders who have aspirations but like many people here, I don't think any one rider or any one team wants to take it on because they're thinking of the Giro d'Italia," Wiggins predicted.

"I hope to find my climbing legs in the next few days. It was always the plan to look at Roubaix as part of the process of the season. I didn't do the whole Classics campaign, so Paris-Roubaix didn't mark the end of the spring for me, I always knew it'd be two days off afterwards and then straight back to where we left."

"The Tour of California is still definitely an objective but perhaps not as much as it was a while ago. The team has changed with some guys coming back from injury, so it will be hard to gauge what we can do. Of course, we'll give it our best shot."

Wiggins also confirmed one objective for 2015: another shot at Paris-Roubaix.

"I think Paris-Roubaix is best race in the world and knocks spots off the Tour de France," he said provocatively.

"I like having the versatility to be able to target it and get a result. I won the Tour de France despite not being a pure climber. I don't know if that makes my Tour win better or worse but it was nice to go onto the Roubaix velodrome with the riders of that calibre of that front group, with people like Cancellara. I 100% definitely want to go back next year."

"There was a lot of talk about if I could do something, with loads of propaganda and people asking Cancellara about me. But now I'm up there. When they remember next year that I was ninth, they'll say I can win Paris-Roubaix. And I'd love to go back and give it another go."