World champions Omega Pharma-Quick Step repeated their dominant performance from last year's opening team time trial of Tirreno-Adriatico when they crushed the opposition on the 18.5km flat course along the Tyrrhenian coast. With Mark Cavendish crossing the line in first to take the leader's jersey, the team put 10 seconds into archrivals Orica-GreenEDGE while Movistar made another solid team time trial to take 3rd.

 

One year ago Omega Pharma-Quick Step crushed the opposition on the opening day of the 2013 Tirreno-Adriatico to put Mark Cavendish in the first leader's jersey of the Italian stage race. Today the team did exactly the same when they stamped their authority on the first big team time trial showdown of the 2014 season.

 

Led by world time trial champion Tony Martin, the team powered around the 18.5km course that was almost just a reversed copy of the one that had been the scene of their 2011 win, in a time of 20.13 and that was a massive 10 seconds faster than their nearest rivals. As it was the case in both the key team time trials of the 2013 season, the battle was again against Orica-GreenEDGE who had made the opening team time trial their key objective in the Italian stage race.

 

The Australians were the 9th team to start and they easily beat Cannondale who had done a good ride to take the early lead. The Australian team now faced a nervous wait but could start to believe in their chances when key rivals like Sky, Movistar, and Tinkoff-Saxo all failed to beat their time.

 

Omega Pharma-Quick Step was the penultimate team on the course and they were clearly on a roll. When they passed the flamme rouge, it was clear that they were going to win as Martin took an impressive turn to maximize the advantage for GC riders Michal Kwiatkowski and Rigoberto Uran.

 

In the Tour de France and World team time trials of 2013, Orica-GreenEDGE and Omega Pharma-Quick Step had finished within a second of each other but today the win was much more comfortable. The final team, Lotto Belisol, did a good ride but was not even close to the time set by their Belgian rivals.

 

Movistar continued their recent progress in team time trials by taking third while Alberto Contador got his GC campaign off to a solid start with 4th for his Tinkoff-Saxo team. Cannondale's early time was good enough for 5th while Sky was a disappointing 6th.

 

Mark Cavendish now leads several of his teammates as he heads into tomorrow's second stage of the race. The 166km route from San Vincenzo to Cascina is almost entirely flat and the stage should be the scene of the first big sprint showdown between the Brit, André Greipel, and Marcel Kittel.

 

A flat course

For the third year in a row, the Tirreno-Adriatico kicked off with a team time trial between San Vincenzo and Donoratico. At 18.5km, the course was slightly longer than in previous editions and the direction had been reversed but with its long, flat roads along the coast it was another one for the big powerhouse.

 

The first team down the ramp was MTN-Qhubeka who kicked their first WorldTour race of the season off with a time of 21.32 to set an early mark. They didn't spend long time in the hot seat though as IAM quickly lowered the best time by a massive 29 seconds.

 

BMC set the early mark

Astana failed to get Michele Scarponi's race off to a good start as they were 4 seconds slower than the Swiss leaders while Bardiani performed more or less as expected to slot into 3rd, 2 seconds ahead of MTN-Qhubeka.

 

The early mark was expected to be set by BMC but the American team had a disappointing ride to set a time that was only 3 seconds faster than IAM's. Europcar were next but they ended up as the lanterne rouge of the day.

 

Cannondale impress

Lampre-Merida fought to limit their losses and did well to only lose 6 seconds to BMC. A little later Cannondale had an impressive ride to beat BMC by no less than 21 seconds.

 

The Italian team didn't lead the race for long as Orica-GreenEDGE took the expected position at the top of the provisional standings when they set a time that was 16 seconds faster than Cannondale's. Giant-Shimano and Ag2r finished in time slightly above the 21-minute mark while Garmin had a disastrous ride to almost lose a minute to the leaders.

 

Disappointment for Sky

All eyes were now on Sky but the British team was far off the mark and could only manage a provisional 3rd. Trek made it into 4th while NetApp-Endura was one of several teams to spend slightly more than 21 minutes on the course.

 

Tinkoff-Saxo did a good ride to move into 2nd, 14 seconds behind the Australian leaders, while Katusha had a bad day to finish far down the rankings. Belkin finished in a time of 20.50 but now all attention was on Movistar who was one of the favourites.

 

Omega Pharma-Quick Step take the win

The Spanish team did well but missed 8 seconds to take the lead. FDJ finished just below the 21-minute mark and now only the two Belgian teams were left on the course.

 

The only threat to Orica-GreenEDGE were Omega Pharma-Quick Step and the team lived up to their status as world champions when they lowered the mark by 10 seconds. Lotto Belisol performed above expectations with a time of 20.43 but the day belonged to their Belgian rivals who repeated last year's performance in impressive fasion.