Clocking up its first WorldTour win since Simon Gerrans took the Santos Tour Down Under, the GreenEdge team upended the leaderboard and dominated the opening team time trial today at Tirreno-Adriatico.
The Australian WorldTour team was clearly quickest of the 22 squads who lined out in the big Italian stage race, handing Matt Goss – the first rider over the line – a strong margin heading into tomorrow’s second stage.
“Today was an absolute dream start,” the 2011 Milan-Sanremo winner said. “It was an amazing team effort. We did everything right from start to finish. The team specifically prepared for this stage, and this definitely paid off today.
"I'm proud to be the first guy crossing the line for the team. It's a great feeling to be back on the podium. It's an especially huge honour to stand on the podium at Tirreno with the rest of the team."
The early best time was set by Tour de France TTT winners Garmin-Barracuda, which covered the 16.9 kilometre course in a time of 18 minutes 58 seconds and appeared poised to take the top honours.
The RadioShack-Nissan team had other thoughts about that and went milliseconds quicker, taking the lead.
However the GreenEdge team was moving even faster and completely smashed that time, going seventeen seconds faster.
The Sky and Astana teams were fourth and fifth, 23 and 30 seconds back respectively.
"The boys knew coming into the finish that we were way up high on Sky and Garmin,” said sports director Matt White. “They knew they were riding a winning time, and they nailed it.
“It was obviously always going to be a big moment for us to take that first win in Europe, and this is an important race. To beat the best teams in the world is a big feat. To win here is huge. It shows we have a well-rounded team.”
White noted that the team went close to taking its first European victory yesterday, with Simon Gerrans being edged out by Alejandro Valverde. “We were unlucky yesterday not to win with Simon [Gerrans] in Paris-Nice,” he stated. “To nearly nail a win in the two biggest stage races of the spring in 24 hours is huge. This is a very proud moment.”
The BMC Racing Team of defending champion Cadel Evans was expected to perform strongly due to what was an impressive lineup. However things didn’t click and the American WorldTour squad was only seventeenth, finishing 58 seconds back and handing Evans an unwelcome start to his campaign.
It was also a quiet day for the 2011 WorldTour winner Philippe Gilbert, who was dropped by the team during the test.
Tirreno-Adriatico (WorldTour) stage 1 TTT, San Vincenzo – Donoratico:
1, GreenEdge, 16.9 kilometres in18 mins 41 secs
2, Radioshack-Nissan-Trek at 17 secs
3, Garmin-Barracuda, same
4, Team Sky at 23
5, Team Astana at 30
6, Saxo Bank at 38
7, Acqua & Sapone at 39
8, Katusha at 40
9, AG2R-La Mondiale at 43
10, Lotto-Belisol at 45
11, Lampre-ISD at 46
12, Farnese Vini at 47
13, Vacansoleil-DCM at 51
14, Omega Pharma-Quick Step s.t
15, Liquigas at 55
16, Rabobank at 57
17, BMC Racing Team at 58
18, Colnago CSF at 1 min 9
19, FDJ-Big Mat at 1 min 18 secs
20, Team Movistar at 1 min 19 secs
21, Euskaltel-Euskadi at 1 min 25 secs
22, Colombia-Coldeportes at 1 min 45 secs