At Tirreno-Adriatico, the team time trial on day one brought the riders from Donoratico to San Vincenzo over a distance of 18.5 kilometers. Cannondale was the first to set a fast time. The team of among other Sagan went under the time of BMC. Next Orica – GreenEdge set a new top time and covered the 18.5 kilometers in 20'24". Only Omega Pharma – Quick-Step could go under the time of Orica with a chrono of 20'13". Movistar stranded at 18 seconds and completes the podium. The Briton Mark Cavendish crossed the finish line first for Omega Pharma – Quick-Step and is the first leader in the Race of the Two Seas.

 

Lotto Belisol performed well and rode to a nice seventh place at 28 seconds of the winner. Lotto Belisol was only one second slower than Team Sky and two seconds slower than Cannondale.

 

"With the strong list of participants in mind we hoped before the start to finish around place ten out of twenty-two," sports director Herman Frison says. "If you eventually become seventh, at one second of Team Sky, at two seconds of Cannondale and at four seconds of the fourth place of Tinkoff, then I dare to say that we did a good job.

 

"If we could have gone faster? Afterwards you can always say that you could have won a few more seconds along the route, but when you see who's only ahead of us and which teams we leave behind us, I am satisfied.

 

"This result gives confidence to aim for a stage win as of tomorrow. Omega Pharma – Quick-Step has the leader's jersey and has a top sprinter with Cavendish, same goes for Giant with Kittel and for us with Greipel. If those three teams join forces I think there's a very big chance we'll have a bunch sprint."

 

You can read our preview of stage 2 here.