Team Sky came within 0.3 seconds of victory as the opening team time trial at the Giro del Trentino produced a dramatic climax.

Finishing level with Bora-Argon 18 in a time of 14 minutes and five seconds, closer inspection showed Team Sky coming up just fractions short.

Led away from Lake Garda by Richie Porte, the team turned around a four-second deficit at the intermediate split, only to miss out by the narrowest of margins. Six of the team's eight riders crossed the line together at the finish in Arco.

That allowed Cesare Benedetti to pull on the pink leader’s jersey as the four-day Italian stage race got under way.

Astana ran third across a fast, 13.3-kilometre power course, setting a time four seconds back on Team Sky and Bora.

Despite narrowly missing out on victory, the result saw Porte put time into many of his pre-race rivals. Ag2r-La Mondiale and Domenico Pozzovivo set the fourth quickest time, seven seconds back, while a crash saw Cannondale-Garmin drop 24 seconds at the finish.

The race heads into the mountains on Wednesday with the queen stage to Bretonico set to shake up the GC once again.

"In my preparationm I have not changed anything from last year, but I got engaged," Porte told Tuttobiciweb to explain his good start to the year. "Then I have not spent the winter in Australia where I could go out every night to have fun. I was the good guy and tlived he athlete's life 100%. I am much leaner and motivated at the beginning of the season and the results have arrived.

"Trentino? I'm here to do well on the climbs but it will not be easy to win because there are rgreat rivals like Pozzovivo and Rosa, who impressed me in Catalunya where he looked stronger than Aru.

"You never know what will happen tomorrow. We'll have to see. It's a nice finale, with the penultimate climb being very hard , maybe the hardest of this race. Much will depend on the run-in. Last week I did not know where I was, but I'm looking forward to tomorrow  and to do a good test."