Cycling: Bauer boosts his London chances with victory

Jack Bauer (right) joined Greg Henderson (left) as a Grand Tour stage winner. Photo / Graham Watson

Jack Bauer Jack Bauer has joined an elite group of Kiwi cyclists, tasting success on the Giro d'Italia cycling race with his team Garmin-Barracuda winning the team's time trial in the fourth stage.

The 27-year-old, who is hoping to ride for New Zealand in the road race at the London Olympics, follows Greg Henderson, Julian Dean, Chris Jenner and Paul Jesson as Kiwi riders who have won stages on one of the three Grand Tours.

Bauer, Dean and Jenner were all part of successful team time trials - Dean was part of the Garmin team who won the stage at last year's Tour de France as well as the 2008 Giro d'Italia and Jenner helped his Credit Agricole team to success in the 2001 Tour de France - but Henderson (2009 Vuelta Espana) and Jesson (1980 Vuelta Espana) won individual stages.

The stage win saw Bauer's teammate Ramunas Navardauskas of Lithuania take the lead in the race and lifts Bauer to 32nd overall in the race.

Garmin clocked 37 minutes, 4 seconds over the mostly flat 33km route in Verona, the first stage back in Italy following three legs in Denmark. Katusha finished second, 5 seconds behind, and Astana and Saxo Bank were next, both 22 seconds back.

"It's an amazing feeling. We came here to win," Bauer told Cyclingnews after the stage. "We always put such a lot into the event, the team time trial.

"To come off and win by such a margin is a fantastic feeling. And also to put Ramunas into the pink jersey is fantastic for the team."

Fellow New Zealander Jesse Sergent finished eighth with his team RadioShack, which has seen him slip to 18th in the overall standings.

Previous race leader Taylor Phinney visibly struggled with a swollen right ankle following a crash on Tuesday and went off the road at one point on to grass and nearly fell into a ditch.

Garmin riders now fill the first four places in the overall standings, with Navardauskas 10 seconds ahead of American sprinter Tyler Farrar and South African veteran Robert Hunter, with overall contender Ryder Hesjedal of Canada fourth.

Alex Rasmussen, who entered third overall, couldn't keep up with his Garmin teammates and dropped in the standings. Phinney, who needed three stitches to close a wound to his right ankle on Tuesday, dropped to fifth, 13 seconds behind. After going off the road, he had to slow for a moment to clean a clump of grass off his shoes, but a weed remained attached to his bike.

"I didn't have anything today," said Phinney, whose BMC team finished 10th, 31 seconds behind Garmin.

"The team waited for me a couple of times. Luckily I didn't fall today, too. I'm upset, there's not much else to say. I didn't have any power.

"I have to thank the team, because they could have left me behind, but they brought me to the finish."

Among pre-race favourites, Joaquin Rodriguez is 30 seconds back, followed by Roman Kreuziger (40s), two-time winner Ivan Basso (47s), Frank Schleck (1:09), 2004 winner Damiano Cunego (1:19) and defending champion Michele Scarponi (1:22).

The fifth stage is a 209km mostly flat leg from Modena to Fano on the Adriatic coast.