World champions BMC Racing win team time trial at Tirreno-Adriatico

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BMC stormed to victory in the opening team time trial of Tirreno-Adriatico at Lido di Camaiore, with Daniel Oss leading the team across the line to take the blue jersey of race leader and Tejay van Garderen gaining an early boost in the race for final overall victory.

With four riders from their back-to-back world title winning efforts in the discipline on show on Wednesday – Oss, van Garderen, Taylor Phinney and Manuel Quinziato – BMC were among the favourites for the stage, and they duly scorched around the 22.7-km course at an average of 56.947kph to record the quickest time of the day.

"It's amazing," said Oss as he waited to receive the blue jersey. "It was one of the objectives for the team win the first stage because we have an amazing team for the TTT. But we also have some amazing climbers like Tejay for the GC, so this is a good start."

BMC's time of 23:55 was two seconds faster than the previous best established by a fluid Etixx-QuickStep, where, as ever, Tony Martin had been the principal driver but where others, including Omnium world champion Fernando Gaviria, contributed strongly.

If the presence of the two recent world champions in the team time trial was in line with the formbook, then the surprise of the day came from the FDJ team of Thibaut Pinot, who were the early pace-setters and finished the day in 3rd place, 9 seconds down on BMC.

The French squad were winners of the team time trial at the recent La Méditerranéenne event, and their showing at WorldTour level here was further evidence of the emphasis they have begun placing upon the discipline in recent seasons. They display also leaves Pinot well-positioned to improve on his fourth place overall finish at Tirreno-Adriatico two years ago.

World champion Peter Sagan and his Tinkoff team placed a solid fourth, 11 seconds down on BMC, while the Astana squad of Vincenzo Nibali – the final outfit to take the start ramp – produced a solid if unspectacular ride to place sixth on the day, 15 seconds off the pace.

Bauke Mollema, second overall a year ago, will be relatively pleased with his start here, as Fabian Cancellara's prodigious efforts helped his Trek-Segafredo team take 7th on the stage, just two seconds behind Nibali.

There was relative disappointment, however, for Orica-GreenEdge, usually such a strong performer in team time trials, as they had to settle for 9th place, though their 25-second deficit won't be of undue concern for their climbing pair of Esteban Chaves and Adam Yates.

Alejandro Valverde's Movistar team was the first to start, and they would finish the day some 29 seconds down on BMC, a setback considering the talent at their disposal in Italy, though all disappointment was relative compared to that of Cannondale.

The squad's rotten luck in team time trials, a back catalogue that dates to their crash in the opening stage of the 2013 Vuelta a España and includes spills at the 2014 Giro d'Italia and 2015 Giro del Trentino, continued in Tuscany on Wednesday as three of their riders crashed early on, including, it seems, new signing and leader Rigoberto Uran. The Colombian had to finish the stage on a normal road bike, but was among Cannondale's formation of five riders who crossed the line in last place, 2:03 down on BMC.

Tirreno-Adriatico continues on Thursday with a sinuous opening road stage to Pomerance, which features a finale designed by double world champion Paolo Bettini, and might favour the finisseurs over the pure sprinters.

Oss will set out from Camaiore in the blue jersey of race leader, but was under no illusions about his place within the BMC hierarchy on Wednesday evening. "We have the jersey but I repeat, we're for the GC with Tejay, and then on tomorrow's stage, I think Greg [Van Avermaet] had a good chance."

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