Tinkoff-Saxo and Alberto Contador got their Tirreno-Adriatico off to a fine start when they finished fourth in today's opening team time trial. Despite being happy to have taken time on Richie Porte, Contador admitted that he was a bit concerned by the time loss to Michal Kwiatkowski.

Today, Tirreno-Adriatico was launched with an 18 kilometer long team time trial - a discipline either loved or hated in the peloton for its physical brutality. Tinkoff-Saxo participate in the race with Alberto Contador, Daniele Bennati, Nicolas Roche, Roman Kreuziger, Michael Mørkøv, Manuele Boaro, Matteo Tosatto and Sergio Paulinho.
 
The powerful line-up thundered through the course fast enough to cross the finish line second best, 13 seconds behind Orica GreenEdge. However, Omega-Pharma Quick Step showed that they are the best in this discipline right now by winning the stage while Movistar finished third.

“One thing’s for sure," Contador said. "We gave it all we had! And we actually did a pretty good time and we expected Omega-Pharma to do well and even better than us on this flat course. But I’m honestly a little bit surprised that they were SO fast.

"Now, we have some time to gain in the mountains while Kwiatkowski and Uran can sit behind and wait for us to attack. However, I’m very happy with the team effort and I’m sure we’ll have a great Tirreno-Adriatico. I feel strong."

“It is true that we have conceded a little more than we'd like, especially compared to Omega, who have a rider who is in an incredible state of form, Kwiatkowski, and also have Rigoberto Uran for the general classification. But is also true that we could gain time over other

teams and therefore, except for Omega, the differences have been pretty good.

“The Tirreno starts now and we have to go day by day. It’s true that 24 seconds is a lot, but we'll see what we can achieve. I'm happy with my sensations, they are pretty good despite being a completely flat time trial and that's the most important”, he said .

“Maybe there were teams with riders more powerful than ours and in certain sections of the time trial they could make a difference, but the truth is that I've seen the team very well, I see it strong and I think we'll do a great Tirreno-Adriatico."
 
“Obviously, we expected a good result from the boys and I think this is a good result even though we didn’t take the win," sports director Philippe Mauduit said. "Omega-Pharma and Orica are specialists in this discipline and we finished ahead of our main opponent here, Richie Porte. I think we’ve created a solid position before entering the mountains. However, we now have to focus on tomorrow’s sprinter stage and make sure Alberto is protected all the way."

You can read our preview of stage 2 here.