GreenEdge wins stage 1 team time trial

The GreenEdge Cycling Team has won its first race on European soil in dominating fashion as the Australian ProTour squad claimed victory in the first stage at Tirreno-Adriatico. GreenEdge completed the 16.9km team time trial in 18:41, 17 seconds faster than runner-up RadioShack-Nissan which was anchored by time trial stalwart Fabian Cancellara.

Garmin-Barracuda, which had set the early benchmark, finished fractions of a second behind RadioShack-Nissan for third place.

Team Sky's effort garnered the British ProTour squad a fourth place finish, 23 seconds down, while Astana rounded out the top five at 30 seconds.

GreenEdge's Matt Goss led the team across the finish line and the 25-year-old Australian earned the first leader's jersey as well as a morale boost 10 days prior to defending his Milan-Sanremo title.

"The season started a little bit slower, and it was deliberately aimed to be good at this race and then through Sanremo and the Classics. So far it's working," said Goss with a smile. "It's a perfect start. It's incredible to win our first team time trial together.

"My form is pretty similar to last year. At Milan-Sanremo I was at the end of a peak of form. This year I hope to be in slightly better form. However winning now is important for my morale and the morale of the team."

Goss and five of his GreenEdge teammates currently hold the top six positions on general classification. Daniele Bennati holds seventh overall and leads a contingent of RadioShack-Nissan riders at 17 seconds back.

2011 Tirreno-Adriatico champion Cadel Evans and his BMC Racing Team opened their title defense inauspiciously as they conceded nearly one minute to GreenEdge, finishing 58 seconds off the pace for 17th place out of 22 teams. While GreenEdge may not pose a threat for the final general classification, teams high up on the leader board have put their respective GC riders in good position. RadioShack-Nissan's Chris Horner and Garmin-Barracuda's Andrew Talansky both lead Evans by 41 seconds while Astana's Roman Kreuziger holds a 28-second advantage over the defending champion, who sits in 109th place on general classification entering stage 2.

If last year's race is any indication, seconds may prove crucial as the top-five riders on the final general classification were separated by 30 seconds.

Worlds re-match

Tomorrow the peloton will face the opening road stage at Tirreno-Adriatico, covering 230km from San Vincenzo to Indicatore, in a day likely favouring the sprinters. The peloton is chock full of sprinting talent including the likes of world champion Mark Cavendish (Sky), Matt Goss (GreenEdge), André Greipel (Lotto Belisol Team), Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda), Oscar Freire (Katusha), Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD), Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale), Daniele Bennati (RadioShack-Nissan), Borut Bozic (Astana) and Sacha Modolo (Colnago-CSF-Inox).

For race leader Matt Goss, it will be the first head-to-head competition against Cavendish since the world championships where Cavendish and Goss finished 1-2 respectively. In fact, with Greipel at the race, the complete world championship podium as well as eight of the top-10 Worlds finishers are at Tirreno-Adriatico.

"The stage will probably end in a sprint," said Goss. "I'll be up against [Mark] Cavendish but against everyone else too. The last time I sprinted against Cavendish was at the Worlds in Copenhagen (where Goss finished second). He's very fast but I'd like to change the result from the Worlds around. But it's wrong to be one step behind another team. We'll try and do something ourselves and keep the leader's blue jersey for the next two days."