The six-day race around the French speaking Romandie region of Switzerland kicked off with a 19.2-kilometer team test against the clock with 18 teams starting in five-minute intervals.

Trek Factory Racing was the seventh team to leave the start house and after boasting the quickest time at the intermediate split settled for a provisional third place (22:01) slightly over two seconds slower than Garmin-Cannondale.

“We had the best time before the intermediate split time, but after we lost time on the last climb,” explained director Alain Gallopin, who followed behind the team. “In a TTT the key to the success is really simple: The strongest have to set themselves on the level of the rest of the team. They have to be able to take long leads without setting the others into the red otherwise they could kill the team’s performance. Today it was up to Kristof Vandewalle to take the longest pulls and lead the team. He has a lot of experience because he was twice TTT World Champion with his former team so he knows exactly how it works. Kristof was good today, but also Giacomo Nizzolo showed he was really strong. That is good for the rest of the week as we will try to get a stage win with Giacomo.”

When all the teams had completed the course the top two squads were separated by less than one second. Team Sky narrowly edged out Orica GreenEdge to take the victory with Katusha rounding out the top three, five seconds back.

Trek Factory Racing ended with a solid 12th place (+42”) and now look to the next days to try for a stage win as they hone their final preparation for the Giro d’Italia. Riccardo Zoidl will focus on the GC where he will go against some strong contenders such as defending champion Chris Froome (Sky), Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar).

“We started a little bit too fast and we lost two guys pretty fast.  But before they [lost contact] they did their job very well," Vandewalle said.

“The rhythm was really good and Giacomo [Nizzolo] was extremely strong today. I think we lost a lot of time in the last two kilometers. We needed to do shorter pulls and some guys just had to follow – at this moment the three strongest had to make the speed, but we did not follow through with this plan. I think we lost 10 seconds or something in the last climb.

“But overall it was a good start, and good for the morale for the rest of the week.”

“I came from the team’s altitude training camp in the Sierra Nevada and I had good legs today," Nizzolo said.

“I think it was a good performance by the team. Of course, we can always improve, but I think the [positive] attitude was there and the legs too. 

“This week will be difficult; there are not so many chances for the sprinters. But nonetheless we will try and take as much as we can. From what I saw today I think we can be confident for the Giro [d’Italia].”