BMC Racing Team took their maiden win in the UCI World Team Time Trial Championships today by beating favourites Orica Greenedge and holders Omega Pharma-Quick Step.

BMC won the race by 35 seconds over the 57.1km course in Ponferrada, Spain to kick off the men’s events over the next week. It was a convincing win by the American team, considering last year’s title was won by less than one second.

Team Ecuador were first off the start ramp and set a final time of 1:11:38 but they were soon bested by MG Kvis, who knocked more than 2 minutes off the South American side’s time. Topsport Vlaanderen had set the fastest time at the first intermediate split and Europcar, the first WorldTour team off the ramp, had failed to beat them.

Topsport’s joy was short-lived however, as Cannondale, the first genuine contender for the title, took 30 seconds off their first check time and looked very strong.

Rusvelo had been nowhere at the first check but by ckecks two and three they were starting to eat into Topsport’s times and looked like they would run them close at the line. At the end, Rusvelo had gauged their effort beautifully, taking the lead by 48 seconds ahead of Topsport.

Meanwhile, at the first check, Garmin , Trek and Lampre had all lost time to Cnnondale, who at this point were fastest at the first and second checks. BMC, another potential winner had also started.

Cannondale beat Rusvelo, as expected, at the line by 1:16. None of the WorldTour teams that had started coud beat Cannondale’s first time check of 25:43:47. That was until BMC destroyed that time, putting 27 seconds into Cannondale. But the big news was that all three of the podium finishers last year, Sky, Orica and OPQS, had all started.

Giant-Shimano had started poorly but were growing into the race, managing to be go fastest at the second check, 44 seconds clear. Then BMC really announced themselves as real contenders when they beat Giant by 50 seconds.

Trek, who had gone poorly, used their specialists to recover slowly and by the line, they had beaten Cannondale by 27 seconds.

Times began to fall quickly, with Sky going fastest at the first before OPQS beat them by just 7 seconds. Orica had been poor at the start 24 seconds down on BMC and they had improved at the second. Meanwhile, Garmin and Giant failed to topple Trek but then BMC came in a huge 0:1:01 ahead of Trek. But by the second check OPQS, were under a second behind the Americans and looked good to secure a third straight title.

Sky were third at the third by 11 seconds to BMC and crucially only had 4 men left. Orica were just one second behind the Brits at the third check. But OPQS had failed to beat BMC, who remained top at the third.

Sky eventually crossed the line, trailing BMC by 37 seconds, guaranteeing BMC a medal. But When Orica and OPQS began to falter at the end, BMC realised what was happening and Rohan Dennis, Silvan Dillier, Danil Oss, Manuel Quinziato, Tejay Van Garderen and Peter Velits could stand on the top step of the podium as World Champions.