Team Sky missed out a medal at the Team Time Trial World Championships by just over two seconds as BMC Racing emerged triumphant in Ponferrada.

The six-man squad set off at a blistering pace and led through the second intermediate time split, despite losing Salvatore Puccio and Geraint Thomas after determined early efforts.

Dario Cataldo, Vasil Kiryienka, Kanstantsin Siutsou and Sir Bradley Wiggins continued to dig deep over the undulating 57.1km course, and stopped the clock with a time of 1hr 04min 07.14sec, which temporarily proved good enough for second place, 37.29sec behind BMC.

Orica-GreenEdge were the next team over the finish line and wrapped their second successive silver medal by finishing 31.84sec down on BMC, with Omega Pharma – Quick-Step pipping Team Sky to third on the final ride of the day.

The action passed off with no major crashes or tumbles, and BMC made the most of the clement conditions as they powered around the course with an average speed of 54km/hr.

The American team were counting their blessings as a shower passed over during the closing stages, and the increasingly slippery roads played into their hands as they bagged their first victory and denied Omega Pharma – Quick-Step a hat-trick of titles.

Back at the team hotel, Sports Director Nicolas Portal praised his riders’ efforts and refused to blame the late shower for the way the results panned out.

He told the Team Sky webpage that the intentions was a bit too high contra the performance by the team.

“The atmosphere and focus within the team was really good today. Our plan was to ride hard from the start and we averaged 60km/h during the first 11km. That showed a huge statement of intent but the effort meant Salvatore was dropped after the first checkpoint and Geraint fell off the pace shortly before the second,” Portal said.

“The four guys who remained did an amazing job over the rest of the course. Kiry and Brad were absolutely incredible and Kosta and Dario held on brilliantly. You have to remember Dario suffered a really bad crash at the Vuelta a few weeks ago, so I was really happy with the determination he showed. It’s a massive shame they missed out on the podium by such a small margin.”

“The rain at the end wasn’t hard, but it was just enough to make the roads slippery and that probably cost us some seconds on BMC. GreenEdge and Quick-Step had the same conditions as us though so we have no complaints about the overall result.”

Portal will now relinquish his powers as his riders swap their trade team jerseys for international ones, and the Frenchman believes Wiggins and Kiryienka are in great shape heading into the individual time trial on Wednesday.

“They were flying out there and that should give them a lot of confidence for Wednesday. Bradley was so, so strong and he’ll be looking to push Tony [Martin] all the way for the rainbow jersey. Kiry just missed out on a medal last year so he’ll be motivated to put that right, and if he rides on Wednesday like he did today, he’ll have a good chance of doing that,” Portal finished.