Even though they had to do without the assistance of reigning Olympic time trial champion Bradley Wiggins, who was busy winning the Tour of Britain, Team Sky picked up a bronze medal at the World Team Time Trial Championships in Tuscany on Sunday with a strong ride to third place.

The six-man team comprising Edvald Boasson Hagen, Chris Froome, Vasil Kiryienka, Richie Porte, Kanstantsin Siutsou and Geraint Thomas took one hour, four minutes and 39 seconds to negotiate the 57.2km course, continuing the team’s strong form in the discipline this season.

Clocking the provisional fastest time through each of the three intermediate time checks, the British team could only await the arrival of rivals Orica-GreenEDGE, BMC Racing and Omega Pharma-Quick Step.

Team Sky finished with four riders after Thomas, and finally Siutsou had pulled off on the approach to the line at the Nelson Mandela Forum, setting a time that would eventually be bested by 22.5 seconds by the OPQS team.

It was Omega Pharma – Quick-Step and Orica-GreenEDGE who went at each other's throats the run-in, with the teams duking it out through the splits as the former claimed back to back victories in the event.

The finish was nerve-wrecking as barely 0.81sec separated the teams at the line, the closest margin in the race’s short history.

Sky Sports Director Dan Hunt revealed he was pleased with the way the team took on the challenge and captured a strong result.

"It was a great result by the lads," he said. "Obviously there were other teams out on the road and commitments with the Tour of Britain and coming back from Canada,” Hunt told the Sky website.

"It's a race we wanted to do really well at but we weren't able to devote a huge amount of time to. We had two really good training sessions here. We kept things simple, we communicated well and rode as a disciplined unit. We tried to give them the information they needed to perform and the lads got out there and did a really good job.

"We went over the course in training on Saturday and that was the only time we saw it. There was a really complicated final 4-5km in Florence. We put time into some of the big teams through there which we were pleased with."

Hunt also acknowledged that Sunday’s performance bodes well for the future as the team target the top step of the podium.

"It's a massive step up from our performance last year and we'll look to step up again next year. It's an event we are taking seriously. We had some big hitters at the Tour of Britain this time but hopefully next year we'll be challenging for the top spot."