Lotto-Belisol last off in Tirreno-Adriatico team time trial

Lotto-Belisol will be the final team to take the start on the opening stage of the 2014 edition of Tirreno-Adriatico, an 18.5km team time trial from Donoratico to San Vincenzo.

The teams set off at three-minute intervals in Tuscany, with MTN-Qhubeka getting the action underway at 14:40 local time. Orica-GreenEdge, who won the equivalent stage two years, set out at 15:04, while Team Sky – with late addition Richie Porte – set out at 15:16.

Fabian Cancellara’s Trek outfit are in action at 15:19, while the favourites for stage victory, Omega Pharma-QuickStep, are the penultimate squad to tackle the course, at 15:40. The QuickStep line-up features Mark Cavendish, Rigoberto Uran, Alessandro Petacchi, Mark Renshaw and the on-form Michal Kwiatkowski, the impressive winner of Saturday's Strade Bianche.

With little or no wind and temperatures a pleasant 18 degrees Celsius, a fast time is expected on a course that features just one technical section – a narrow stretch between kilometres 2.2 and 3 – and one short climb at Castagneto Carudcci. After the intermediate time check at 11.3km, there is a long, straight run-in towards the finish in San Vincenzo.

Start times for stage 1 of Tirreno-Adriatico