Omega Pharma-Quick Step win Tirreno-Adriatico team time trial

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Omega Pharma-Quick Step claimed victory in the opening team time trial at Tirreno-Adriatico and put Mark Cavendish into the overall lead with a harmonious collective effort on a rainy afternoon in Tuscany. The Belgian squad made light of the conditions to hurtle around the 16.9km route from San Vincenzo to Donoratico some 11 seconds clear of Movistar and 16 ahead of BMC.

While Cavendish will wear the first maglia azzurra of the race after crossing the line in front, he was quick to acknowledge the role world time trial champion Tony Martin had played in securing the win for a well-oiled Omega Pharma-Quick Step squad. The team averaged 52.286kph to see off Movistar – for whom Alex Dowsett impressed – and a BMC team that included Taylor Phinney and Cadel Evans.

Asked to explain the reason for his team’s success, Cavendish was to the point. “Two words, one name: Tony Martin,” he said, and then joked: “There are no real egos here except maybe me, but it was all about getting eight guys from point A to point B as quickly as possible. When a team time trial works out, it’s the best feeling in cycling.”

Impressive though Martin was, however, Cavendish himself has considerable pedigree in the discipline – he won Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España team time trials with HTC – and Omega Pharma-Quick Step could also count on Michal Kwiatkowski, Zdenek Stybar and Niki Terpstra.

Even though they were down to the bare five riders for the final kilometres, that quintet had the right blend of horsepower and cohesion, and they made light of the greasy conditions to take a convincing win. Three seconds up on the Movistar after 7.9km, Omega Pharma gradually padded their advantage in the finale, to win by 11 seconds.

“I can’t remember if I've done a team time trial in weather like that. Probably not so wet and technical but it was a good day,” Cavendish said. “We trained yesterday on the course in the pissing rain and this morning too. We knew what it was going to be like in the rain. It didn't matter about the weather, the guys wanted to keep practicing and practicing to get it right, and they certainly did. It was nice to be part of it."

Thanks to BMC’s third place, Cadel Evans is the best-placed of the out-and-out pre-race favourites, and while his gains were marginal, Tirreno-Adriatico is a race usually decided by seconds. A Dmitriy Gruzdev crash hindered Astana’s effort, but they still placed 5th at 20 seconds, meaning that Vincenzo Nibali yielded just four seconds to Evans.

Chris Froome and Sky were a lacklustre 7th, 25 seconds down, while Alberto Contador starts the race at a relative disadvantage after his Saxo-Tinkoff squad could only manage 8th at 32 seconds. “The differences are important, we lost 16 seconds with BMC and also lost time to Astana and Sky, who are direct rivals, but we cannot think that this is definitive,” Contador said. “It is true that these races are won or lost by a few seconds, but well, this is just beginning.”

The news was worse for his fellow countryman Joaquim Rodriguez: his Katusha team couldn’t reproduce its surprise showing from last year’s Giro d’Italia team time trial in Verona, and lost 44 seconds. “Honestly we expected a better result,” Rodriguez admitted. “We had a bad start, not taking the first corners at our best. A couple of times our group broke, and we lost two important riders such as Paolini and Kuchynski. Anyway, the most important thing was not to fall during this hard day: we'll see what we can do during the next stages."

Elsewhere, Fabian Cancellara gave yet another exhibition of how having such a powerful individual in your line-up can be a mixed blessing in a team event, as RadioShack Leopard could only place 10th at 36 seconds, with Andy Schleck dropped before the finish. Moreno Moser is considered something of a wildcard for the general classification, and Cannondale did his chances no harm with a workmanlike 4th place, 19 seconds down.

Speaking of dark horses, of course, Tony Martin finds himself in an ideal position before the action gets underway in earnest. The German will struggle to match the likes of Contador, Froome et al on the slopes of Prati di Tivo at the weekend, but with his current buffer and a short time trial on the final day in San Benedetto del Tronto, Martin has ample motivation to limit his losses in the mountains in the days ahead.

Before that, however, the sprinters ought to have their opportunities, with Thursday’s stage to Indicatore expected to see the first clash of the season between the blue jersey Cavendish and his great rival André Greipel (Lotto Belisol).