Bradley Wiggins headed into yesterday's queen stage with a comfortable overall lead as Rohan Dennis was the only GC rival siting withing a minute of the race leader. After tapping out a hard tempo on the front for a big part of the final climb, however, he saw his advantage of the Garmin rider almost halved and he admitted that he had underestimated his Australian rival.

Bradley Wiggins put on an impressive climbing display to retain the yellow jersey at the Tour of California on stage three.

The Brit set a fierce tempo up the final Mt. Diablo climb to thin out the bunch and make life difficult for his rivals ahead of the steep ramp up to the line.

Nearest challenger Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) jumped clear to take the stage win and claw back 20 seconds on the race leader, reducing the gap to 24 seconds with five stages remaining.

Team Sky committed fully to the cause on a sweltering stage, placing the entire team on the front of the peloton to chase down the breakaway with the yellow jersey safely ensconced in the line.

With six kilometres remaining Wiggins hit the front, cutting a composed figure as he set an impressive tempo, spinning a lower gear than his rivals and thinning the bunch to just 11 riders under the flame rouge.

Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) was the first to hit out inside the final kilometre but was overhauled by Dennis, who took the win by six seconds over Tiago Machado (NetApp-Endura) and a further two seconds on Lawson Craddock (Giant-Shimano).

After the stage Wiggins admitted he was happy with his ride but more pleased to come through a difficult day in the California sun.

"It doesn't get much hotter than in a race and my biggest concern today was just exploding," he told TeamSky.com. "I was drinking all day and the boys were just incredible. They rode all stage and minimised the break.

"This is the first time I've ridden in this heat in almost two years. It takes an adjustment. Actually, I'm a bit knackered. My mission was to be in a position to limit any losses and not explode. That's why I was riding tempo and making sure no one got up the road.

"The boys did a good job in this heat. We rode this climb over a week ago. It picked up in the last 300 meters and it's a tough climb. Every day is a tough day if you're in yellow.

"Then on the last climb I just wanted to ride a good tempo and avoid all the accelerations. I did that and then it was just about getting to the top at the end. It was difficult to know who was in the group riding on the front. That was probably the only mistake I made as Rohan Dennis took a little bit of time. I perhaps underestimated that he'd be there so we just need to keep a closer eye on him on the next ones.

"Hopefully today was about as hard as it should get for the boys. I think the next two days should, fingers crossed, be a bit more straightforward. Friday is the next big challenge and then it's into the weekend."

Sports Director Kurt-Asle Arvesen echoed Wiggins's praise of the team in taking on the challenge of stage three.

"The whole team were fantastic again today," he added. "All the guys were committed and up there supporting each other and supporting Brad. They stayed out of trouble and then coming onto the climb we had Josh (Edmondson) and Joe (Dombrowski) there at the start. Eventually Brad got isolated but he felt good and he took it on.

"Obviously with people sitting on his wheel for the whole climb they can jump clear at the end. That’s how it is but it’s a big day ticked off for us. We now have to refocus. We’ll still try to control the race but for the next few days it will be more up to the sprinter’s teams. Then we need to be ready on Friday again."