Bradley Wiggins (Sky) had an extremely untimely mechanical just as the Astana duo Paolo Tiralongo and Vincenzo Nibali had put down the hammer in today's final stage of the Giro del Trentino. While it may have cost him the overall win in the race, the team focuses on the positive signs ahead of their major target in the Giro d'Italia.

Bradley Wiggins had a very unfortunate final stage in the Giro del Trentino. He was unusually far back in the peloton when Paolo Tiralongo upped the pace in the favourite group and the Tour de France winner had to spend some energy to close down a gap as he was stuck behind a number of dropped riders.

Just moments later he had to change his bike. Showing plenty of frustration, he threw his vehicle away before starting his chase of the Tiralongo-led lead group. Pedalling smoothly, he quickly managed to close down much of the advantage.

Just as he was about to get back on, Vincenzo Nibali attacked and created a strong front duo with Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini). Meanwhile, the Tour de France winner was running out of steam and at the top he had lost more than 1.30 to the Astana captain.

As overall leader Maxime Bouet (Ag2r) and second-placed Kanstantsin Siutsou (Sky) had both been dropped and ended up losing plenty of time, Wiggins had been in prime position to take the final victory in the race as he started the day 9 seconds ahead of Nibali who ended up winning the race. Hence, the mechanical may have cost him the opportunity to take his first victory of the season and instead he had to settle for 5th.

Unsurprisingly, there was plenty of disappointment in the Italian camp. However, the team had always insisted that the event was mainly preparation for the Giro d'Italia and so they chose to focus on the plenty of positive signals they had seen throughout the four days of hard racing.

"It was some bad luck there for Brad on the climb," sports director Marcus Ljungqvist said. "He was almost back to the lead group when Nibali attacked. That was always going to happen and you really can’t afford to give the top guys any time. In the end he expended a lot of energy but it’s just one of those things. It was a great effort. We need to focus on the good things from this race and that is two stage wins and some good work and form building ahead of the Giro. With some rest for a few guys we will be ready for May."

Unlike Nibali, Wiggins will skip Sunday's Liege-Bastogne-Liege and he will have no more competition days before he lines up in Naples on May 4 to start the Giro.