Team Sky battled to ninth place at the World Team Time Trial Championships despite suffering a pre-race crash in Richmond.

Danny Pate, Luke Rowe and Elia Viviani were involved in a high-speed fall as they familiarised themselves with the route on Saturday, but all three riders took their place in the six-man squad alongside Vasil Kiryienka, Salvatore Puccio and Ian Stannard.

Although Rowe and Viviani both fell off the pace prematurely on account of their injuries, the team maintained an average speed of 53km/h over 38.8km, and their time of 43 minutes and 49 seconds proved 1min 41sec slower than two-time world champions BMC Racing.

The fight for the gold medal proved a close one, with Etixx - Quick-Step being pushed into second place by just 11 seconds, while Movistar rounded out the podium only 19 seconds further adrift. 27 teams travelled to Virginia to compete and the lead changed hands 12 times before BMC Racing claimed their second successive title since the event was reintroduced in 2012.

Team Sky weren't the only team to hit the deck on the opening weekend of the Championships, Tinkoff-Saxo also saw two riders downed during their run and ultimately propped up the standings.

Back at the team hotel, Sports Director Nicolas Portal was pleased with the performance his riders had produced under the circumstances, and hailed their attitude.

He told TeamSky.com: "Given what happened yesterday, I thought that was a good ride. Elia did a strong pull at the beginning and Danny fought all the way until the end. Luke contributed before he was dropped and Ian was his usual strong self. Salva has come out of the Vuelta in really good form and Kiry was just a machine. No one could pass him on the front and he's looking great for Wednesday's individual time trial.

"Before the crash, I think we were looking at a podium position here so it's a shame the way things turned out."

Last week, Viviani was being touted as one of the favourites for Sunday's road race, and Portal remains hopeful the Italian will be able to recover in time to be in contention for the rainbow jersey.

"Elia was taking some long, hard turns before he dropped back, and that's a good sign. He's got a week to recover now and we're all hoping for that he can come good. He was in fantastic shape at the Tour of Britain last week and this is a big goal for him.

"Danny deserves some praise as well. He was really motivated to do a good ride in front of his home crowd, and he showed a lot of bravery to still be in the first four at the finish. Chapeau to him."

With the Championships now switching from trade teams to national teams, Kiryienka will return to action with Belarusian compatriot Kanstantsin Siutsou at the World Time Trial Championships on Wednesday, with nine Team Sky riders representing their countries in the men's road race on Sunday.