Bradley Wiggins (Sky) won the first battle of the GC favourites as his Sky team took a convincing win in the 17,4km team time trial on the Ischia island. The team's young domestique Salvatore Puccio managed to stay with his best teammates and as he was the first rider to cross the line yesterday, he takes over the maglia rosa from previous leader Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step).

Many had expected Bradley Wiggins to gain an early advantage on his rivals in today's team time trial on the second day of racing in the Giro d'Italia and the Brit did just that. Alongside his teammates Salvatore Puccio, Dario Cataldo, Rigoberto Uran and Sergio Henao his Sky team finished in a time of 22.05 and nobody was able to match the pace of the British team who took their second victory in the discipline in jst a few weeks after their dominance of a similar stage in the Giro del Trentino.

The Movistar team was the closest challenger to the superiority of the Sky team. The Spanish team once again showed that they have improved amazingly in the discipline and after having won in the Vuelta last year and finished 2nd in this year's Tirreno-Adriatico they did another impressive performance. The team's GC  leader Benat Intxausti led his team across the line to finish just 9 seconds behind Sky and they thus made up for a terrible start to the day when the team's second GC option Juan Jose Cobo crashed heavily during the warm-up sessions.

Another winner today was the Astana team of Vincenzo Nibali. The Italian had hoped to limit his losses today and with a third place only 14 seconds behind Sky he did just that. With his eyes firmly focused on his finishing time he finished surrounded by 5 of his teammates and there is no doubt that he is hugely satisfied with today's performance.

The 17,4km stage was held on the island of Ischia on a very technical and hilly course and it was certainly not one for the traditional TTT powerhouses. While pre-race favourites like Garmin, Orica-GreenEdge, BMC and Radioshack finished 7th, 9th, 12th and 15th respectively, much less renowned TTT teams like Katusha, Vini Fantini and Lampre all finished in the top 6. It was testament to the toughness of the course that most teams only finished with 5 riders and Lampre and Euskaltel even had to slow down to wait for their 5th man and the maneuver ended up costing Samuel Sanchez plenty of time.

While Wiggins and Nibali are winners among the GC riders, Ryder Hesjedal, Cadel Evans and Sanchez are the big losers. While Hesjedal gained time on his rivals last year when his team won the team time trial, he lost 25 seconds to Wiggins today. Evans and Sanchez are worse off as they continue their Italian journey with a time loss of 0.37 and 1.01 respectively. On the other hand Michele Scarponi is a huge winner as the many Lampre climbers were perfectly suited to this technical course and he limited his losses to just 22 seconds.

The Omega Pharma-Quick Step team of overall leader Mark Cavendish only finished 17th and so the Manxman only got to wear the jersey one day this time. Young Salvatore Puccio was the first Sky rider to cross the line yesterday and as he was one of the 5 riders to finish with Wiggins he takes over the maglia rosa.

The race continues tomorrow with a lumpy 222,0km course from Sorrento to Marina di Ascea and with two hard climbs in the final part of the race, it is certainly not a stage for the pure sprinters. You can follow all the action on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

Result:

1. Team Sky 22.05

2. Movistar +0.09

3. Astana +0.14

4. Katusha +0.19

5. Vini Fantini +0.22

6. Lampre +0.22

7. Garmin-Sharp +0.25

8. Blanco +0.28

9. Orica-GreenEdge +0.28

10. Vacansoleil +0.34

11. Cannondale +0.35

12. BMC +0.37

13. Bardiani +0.42

14. Saxo-Tinkoff +0.43

15. Radioshack +0.43

16. Androni +0.46

17. Omega Pharma-Quick Step +0.48

18. Ag2r +0.50

19. FDJ +0.55

20. Colombia +0.56

21. Lotto-Belisol +1.00

22. Euskaltel-Euskadi +1.01

23. Argos-Shimano +1.13

General classification:

1. Salvatore Puccio 3.20.43

2. Bradley Wiggins

3. Sergio Henao

4. Dario Cataldo

5. Rigoberto Uran

6. Benat Intxausti +0.09

7. Giovanni Visconti

8. Jose Herrada

9. Alex Dowsett

10. Eros Capecchi

Points classification:

1. Mark Cavendish 28

2. Elia Viviani 20

3. Nacer Bouhanni 16

4. Giacomo Nizzolo 14

5. Matthew Goss 13

Mountains classification:

1. Giovanni Visconti 3

2. Cameron Wurf 3

3. Guillaume Bonnafond 3

4. Marco Canola 2

5. Martijn Keizer 1

Young riders' classification:

1. Salvatore Puccio 3.20.43

2. Alex Dowsett +0.09

3. Fabio Aru +0.14

4. Mattia Cattaneo +0.22

5. Elia Viviani +0.23

Teams' classification:

1. Team Sky 22.05

2. Movistar +0.09

3. Astana +0.14

4. Katusha +0.19

5. Vini Fantini +0.22