The Radioshack team was mentioned as a potential outsider to take the win in yesterday's team time trial in the Giro d'Italia but the team was only 14th fastest and lost no less than 43 seconds to Team Sky. Team manager Luca Guercilena was hugely disappointed at the performance and now hopes to see his team bounce back in the coming days.

Radioshack-Leopard has traditionally been one of the strongest team time trial teams and with the likes of Jesse Sergent, Tiago Machado, Nelson Oliveira, Hayden Roulston and Yraoslav Popoych all in their line-up, the team was expected to be among the best in yesterday's tricky stage of the Giro d'Italia. The day was seen as a perfect opportunity for GC captain Robert Kiserlovski to gain a few seconds on his key rivals.

Already at the intermediate check it was, however, clear that the team was way off the pace and in the end the squad lost no less than 43 seconds to Sky and pre-race favourite Bradley Wiggins. Unsurprisingly, there was plenty of disappointment in the Luxembourg camp when they assessed the day's result.

“We expected this stage to be hard but the gap is impressive and we’re really not happy," team manager Luca Guercilena said. " We’ll see how things play out in the next stages.  We didn’t have anything bad go on, but we just weren’t good enough.”

The team was severely handicapped by the injuries of Popovych who is known as a formidable team time triallist. The veteran Ukrainian crashed twice in Saturday's opening stage and was unable to keep up with his teammates as they negotiated yesterday's difficult course.

“We lost Popo due to his two crashes yesterday and we know he can be very good in a team time trial so that was a disappointment for us," Guercilena said. "We've lost 43-seconds already so this is a problem here at the start of the race.  We will talk tonight and look for a solution.  Stage by stage we will have to make up time to put us in the top 10 where we hope to be.”

Machado was expected to be one of the riders to shine in the stage as he is both a formidable time triallist and a strong climber who could handle the course's numerous ascents. The Portuguese now hopes to put the disappointment behind him and prove the team's strength in the coming days.

“We had bigger aspirations than this," he said. "We are unhappy with our result.  For sure we know we are better than that so luckily we have more stages to get better.  We will talk about our mistakes, learn from them and move on.  It’s far from over – this isn’t the right impression to have of us.”

The team gets its first chance to take revenge in today's 222km third stage. With two hard climbs in the last part the course lends its hands to attackers but it could also end up in a sprint from a reduced peloton. The team's sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo was 4th on the opening day and is able to handle climbs really well so there is little doubt that the Italian hopes to make amends for yesterday's performance at the very first opportunity.

Starting at 14.15 you can follow the stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.