Liquigas-Doimo fly to TTT victory

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It's a team game, and Liquigas-Doimo best demonstrated the benefits of having a fully fit squad in today's team time trial when it took the Giro by storm as rain clouds hovered over the peloton on the road from Savigliano to Cuneo.

The Italian team put its two general classification contenders, Vincenzo Nibali and Ivan Basso, in first and second on general classification with Nibali donning the maglia rosa, after setting the fastest time on the 33km route in the Piedmonte region.

Liquigas-Doimo topped Team Sky by 13 seconds, while the Astana team of the previous race leader Alexander Vinokourov imploded in the finale and lost 38 seconds to the stage winners by the line.

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Before the start Nibali paid tribute to his team, noting how strong it is and that he felt molto tranquillo; that proved to be the case as Roberto Amadio's outfit put in a fantastic display of team riding in testing conditions that changed throughout the parcours.

"The whole team did an amazing ride. We went really, really strong," said Nibali after the stage. "I pushed a lot of times and Basso went really strong, Bodnar too. They were all good today... Sabatini, Syzmd and Vanotti."

"We got caught in the rain like everyone else but we didn't panic and stayed together. That was the difference. We won the time trial at the Giro a few years ago, so we know we're good at them. This is a team victory and the team has taken the pink jersey, not just me."

After a whirlwind opening to the 93rd Giro in which several big teams have lost some of their stars and been battered by conditions in Holland, Liquigas-Doimo showed that it has arguably suffered the least damage and possesses the firepower to take control of this year's race.

While the likes of Garmin-Transitions, Astana and even Team Sky lost one or more of its team members along the route, Liquigas-Doimo kept all nine men together until the finish in Cuneo, where Nibali collected his first maglia rosa.

"It's still difficult to think I'm in the pink jersey. The directeur sportif Zanatta kept shouting via radio that we were going to get it. They often say things like that to motivate us. But this time it was true," Nibali said.

"For every Italian rider, it's a special moment but I was called up late for the Giro and so I won't change my race strategy and will take things day by day. We'll see what happens in the rest of the Giro."

"Vincenzo and Ivan had a good day, as did the whole squad... they're big riders," said Roberto Amadio after the finish. And they showed how big they were with a superbly consistent performance that managed to overhaul the time set by Team Sky - which for most of the stage looked unbeatable - and propel the two aforementioned Italians to the top of the standings.

Vino vanquished

Meanwhile, just two days after taking the maglia rosa in his first Giro d'Italia, Vinokourov had a day he'd probably rather forget, his Astana team finishing fifth and its time of 37:15 meaning he slipped to sixth on general classification, 33 seconds behind Nibali.

Astana directeur sportif Giueseppe Martinelli had spoken of the importance of his team getting the fundamentals right before the start of today's stage; doing that proved a little difficult in the closing kilometre as the wheels feel off Vinokourov's train when he lost his fifth man in the squad and hence precious seconds while the remaining four riders waited for him to finish.

A visibly frustrated Vinokourov beckoned his troops to lift for the final push to the line in a bid to keep the jersey but it wasn't forthcoming, this year's version of Astana not possessing the firepower it did at last year's Tour de France when it dominated this discipline with the likes of Alberto Contador, Lance Armstrong and Andreas Klöden.

Saxo Bank, with its surprise packet Richie Porte its best hope on general classification, only managed 37:27 in a performance that reflected the squad directeur sportif Bradley McGee has at his disposal - that is, one not suited to team time trials.

Making a splash in Savigliano

Cadel Evans' BMC Racing team set the best of the early times with 37:58, beating the mark set by Footon-Servetto of 38:40 and until Team Katusha's ride of 37:04 - which earned it fourth place at day's end - it looked like Evans and co had done enough to be amongst the top 10. But as the rain fell near the first intermediate time check, so did the times and soon a sub 38-minute time became the norm.

Sky managed to put several days of troubles behind it despite copping a drenching as the heavens opened - directeur sportif Sean Yates must have been praying to those same heavens that no more bad luck hit his team after a disastrous stage on Monday.

It didn't, and the British squad finished with a time of 36:50 which appeared fast enough to take the stage and a much-needed boost to morale. Led admirably by Bradley Wiggins, who mustered his troops along the 33km, the men in black held the fastest first intermediate split of 19:31 and carried that momentum to the finish where only one team proved to be faster on the day.

Possessing one of the favourites for the overall title in Carlos Sastre, Cervélo TestTeam were one of the squads to watch closely out of the gate in Savigliano. And driven by Lithuanian time trial champion Ignatas Konovalovas, who won the final stage time trial in Rome during last year's Giro, the Swiss squad managed sixth fastest, its time 38 seconds off that set by Liquigas.

Behind them however, Garmin-Transitions was having another tough day at the office. Its stocks already dwindled by the loss of Christian Vande Velde through a broken collarbone suffered in a crash during stage three, Matt White's charges also dropped Murilo Fischer with about 10km remaining.

Down to six riders, which included two national time trial champions in Canada's Svein Tuft and young Australian Cameron Meyer, Garmin-Transitions finished eighth, a good performance given the circumstances and the fact that its general classification hope, Vande Velde, wasn't there.

Importantly, today's stage showed how important a solid - and complete - team is going to prove as this year's Giro progresses. With several days to take stock before the first of the mountain stages, those teams with ambitions for overall glory will have to regroup and ensure that the losses suffered on the roads of Holland don't continue to hinder their chances as the race returns to its spiritual home of Italy.

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