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Cuneo - Vincenzo Nibali pulled on the race leader's pink jersey at the Giro d'Italia after leading his Liquigas team to victory in the fourth stage time trial over 33km here Wednesday.
Liquigas powered over the undulating race course from Savigliano to Cuneo in the Piedmont region to finish ahead of Bradley Wiggins' Team Sky, with HTC-Columbia finishing third.
Overnight leader Alexandre Vinokourov was forced to give up the pink jersey after his Astana team lost composure in the closing kilometres, the Kazakh losing 38sec to end up sixth in the overall standings, 33sec adrift.
Another big loser on the day was Australian race contender Cadel Evans, whose BMC team finished way down the standings at 1:21 behind Liquigas, whose team leader is former Tour of Italy winner Ivan Basso.
Former Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre had his Cervelo team to thank for helping limit his losses to Nibali to only 38sec.
Basso, who served a two-year ban for doping between 2007 and 2009, is now second overall at 13sec.
For now, however, the glory will go to Nibali.
The Sicilian all-rounder, who finished an impressive seventh in last year's Tour de France, was only called up for the race at the last minute after Franco Pellizotti was accused of doping.
Thursday's fifth stage is held over 162 km between Novara and Novi Ligure, where the race will pay hommage to the Italian legend Fausto Coppi, who died 50 years ago.
