Team Sky got off to a strong start at Tirreno-Adriatico with Wout Poels , Elia Viviani, Vasil Kiryienka and Leopold König all finishing a shortened time trial within 15 seconds of the triumphant Adriano Malori.

The race had been due to commence with a 22.7km team time trial around Lido di Camaiore but storm damage in the region forced the organisers to cut the route to 5.7km at short notice, and run an individual race against the clock.

It was Daniel Oss (BMC Racing) who set a formidable early benchmark with his time of six minutes and eight seconds, and over two hours had passed before Matthias Brändle (IAM Cycling) went faster. Brändle’s spell at the top of the charts lasted less than 10 minutes however, with Malori (Movistar) clocking what proved to be a winning time of 6min 4secs - one second quicker than Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing).

By that point Poels, Viviani, Kiryienka and König had all finished their runs, and their performances proved good enough for 21st (+11), 29th (+12), 39th (+14) and 45th (+15) positions respectively.

In contrast, Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) finished down in 60th place, with Nairo Quintana (Movistar) a further eight seconds adrift in 68th. Rigoberto Uran fared the best of the pre-race favourites, with the Etixx - Quick-Step man ending the day in 18th place, 10 seconds back.

Back at the team hotel, Sports Director Dario Cioni was pleased with the start his riders had made and believes there is a lot to fight for in the race, despite the absence of Chris Froome.

He told TeamSky.com: “A lot of our guys rode good ‘prologues’ today, and had there been the time trial like was originally scheduled, I think we would have been contesting the victory. Every single one of our riders finished with 20 seconds of Malori, which was really encouraging to see.

“With Froomey missing the race, we have plenty of new options available to us. For the next two days we’re going to get right behind Viviani as we’re expecting two bunch sprints, and everyone will get the chance to show what they can do on Sunday’s first summit finish.

“That will then dictate who our leader is over the last few days. It should be an interesting race and we’re all looking forward to it.”