Team Sky completely dominated the opening day of the Coppi e Bartali as Ben Swift won the morning half-stage before the team took a comfortable win in the afternoon team time trial. With strong allrounders Dario Cataldo and Vasil Kiryienka high up on GC, the team keeps an eye on the overall standing for the rest of the four-day race.

Team Sky continued their scintillating start to Settimana Coppi e Bartali with victory in the stage 1b team time trial.

With the race taking on a unique format with teams split into two groups of four, Ben Swift, Pete Kennaugh, Dario Cataldo and Vasil Kiryienka combined to set a storming time of 15 minutes and 30 seconds to win the stage.

That time proved to be 15 seconds quicker than their nearest rivals to ensure Swift not only retained his lead, but was joined at the top of the general classification by three team-mates.

The Yorkshireman now holds a six-second advantage after the team’s second victory in less than six hours.

RusVelo came closest to the best time with the powerful Russian outfit holding the benchmark with Sergey Lagutin, Artur Ershov, Sergey Pomoshnikov and Kirill Pozdnyakov for much of the afternoon.

Team Sky’s other quartet of Philip Deignan, Joe Dombrowski, Ian Boswell and Sebastian Henao clocked a time of 16:28 but kept their powder dry in the knowledge they will be called upon heavily in the stages to come.

With the prospect of not one but two glasses of champagne at dinner, Sports Director Dan Frost was understandably happy with how the day had panned out.

“It was a really fast one from the guys,” he said. “Winning by 15 seconds from the next best team is quite a distance on a short effort like that.

“We still have Ben in the jersey. The guys are racing with confidence and it looks like we have a really strong team here. We’ll try to ride smart tomorrow and see what we can do. There’s still a long way to go and then a final time trial which will move the GC around.

“The guys we are counting on and who can certainly do something in the final time trial are right up there. Dario and Kiry we know are strong against the clock. But it’s been a great day and we will enjoy tonight.”