With several past wins in the discipline and several excellent specialists on their roster, Team Sky was one of the favourites in today's opening team time trial in Tirreno-Adriatico. However, the team could only manage 6th and admitted to being disappointed with the performance that caused a time loss for Richie Porte to most of his key rivals.

Team Sky got off to a non-spectacular start at Tirreno-Adriatico by placing sixth in the opening team time trial. The eight-man squad clocked a time of 20 minutes and 40 seconds on the largely flat 18.5-kilometre course which proved to be 27 seconds down on the triumphant Omega Pharma – Quick-Step team, who edged out Orica-GreenEdge by 11 seconds to take their victory.

That result saw Mark Cavendish top the overall standings as the first Omega Pharma – Quick-Step rider to cross the line, and the former Team Sky man will now look to defend his red jersey in the sprint-friendly second stage on Thursday.

Team Sky had been the 13th squad to roll down the start ramp in Donoratico and had been set a time of 21min 00sec to beat by BMC Racing. As they made their way to San Vincenzo however, Orica-GreenEdge lowered that bar by 35sec, and it proved a benchmark slightly too far.

With the likes of Bradley Wiggins, Richie Porte and Kanstantsin Siutsou leading the way, the team looked well regimented throughout their run, and six of the eight riders crossed the finish line together as they posted the provisional third-fastest time.

Saxo-Tinkoff and Movistar would both go faster before the day was done, but it was Omega Pharma – Quick-Step who ultimately took the spoils on the penultimate run of the stage.

After the stage, Sports Director Dario Cioni admitted the team had been hoping to finish higher up the standings, but knows there will be plenty of twists and turns to come before the race culminates on Tuesday.

“We had been looking to do better than sixth and there were a few disappointed riders at the end there. There was a little bit of wind whilst we were out on the course but that didn’t really play a significant part and the best team won on the day.

“Omega Pharma – Quick-Step have got a team tailor-made for days like today with the likes of Tony Martin and Michal Kwiatkowski in their squad, and guys like Cav are also really strong over this distance.

“You never want to lose 27 seconds to guys like Rigoberto [Uran] either with the mountainous stages to come, but that lead is certainly not insurmountable and it’s all still to play for in the GC.

“Omega Pharma – Quick-Step are going to have to control the race now to defend the jersey and they’re going to have to spend energy doing that while we can save ours and wait for the mountains on Saturday. That said, we have to remain alert and we’ll be well positioned between now and then.”

You can read our preview of stage 2 here.