Wiggins tightens grip on Tour

Bradley Wiggins increased his stranglehold on the yellow jersey after a dominant victory in the 41.5km individual time trial on Monday.

The Team Sky rider clocked 51 minutes 24 seconds during stage nine's race against the clock from Arc-et-Senans to Besancon to claim his first stage win at the Tour de France and edge team-mate Chris Froome into second place, while creating further distance between himself and rival Cadel Evans, who is second in the overall classification.

Australian reigning champion Evans began the day 10 seconds adrift of Wiggins but could only finish sixth in the sprint with 53 minutes 07 seconds, nearly two minutes off the pace, meaning the gap between the two riders widened to 1 minute 53 seconds.

As Team Sky celebrated a one-two finish, it also saw Froome climb from sixth to third place overall, leapfrogging Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Denis Menchov (Katusha) as he moved within 14 seconds of Evans.

Nibali started the day 16 seconds behind in third overall but a time of 53mins 31secs meant he slipped down to fourth and now trails Froome by 16 seconds.

RadioShack-Nissan's Fabian Cancellara crossed the line third, while Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing) and Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) completed the top five on Monday.

After the first time check at 16.5km, Wiggins held a 1min 2secs advantage over Evans, with Froome keeping on his teammate's heels, five seconds behind.

Wiggins increased his lead over the 2011 champion to 1min 19 secs at the second time check at 31.5km, and opened up a 16-second gap ahead of Froome.

In the final ten kilometres, the triple Olympic champion blitzed the field to finish 35 seconds ahead of Froome and 1min 37 secs ahead of Cancellara.

Slovak Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale), who was 105th in Monday's time trial, continues to lead the points classification on 217, 32 ahead of Australian Matthew Goss (Orica GreenEdge), who was 134th in stage nine.

Stage ten on Tuesday is a 194.4km route from Macon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, a highly mountainous leg including the first ever ascent of Col du Grand Colombier.