To the surprise of exactly nobody, including some rival teams, HTC won today's team time trial to Torino, putting leader and crono ace Marco Pinotti into the first maglia rosa of the 2011 Giro d'Italia. HTC finished with only five riders, and barely managed that, but the pure power of Pinotti, Cavendish, Bak, Sivstov and Lewis was too much for even the nine-rider squads to keep pace.
American teams were a big part of the story, as expected, but the party was nearly crashed by the surprising Omega Pharma team, whose first-of-the-day time held up against everyone but the HTC machine and a late, equally surprising Radio Shack. No major problems for anyone, though Katusha and Euskaltel lost a bit more time than their GC guys would have liked. Results:
- HTC-Highroad, 21.00
- Radio Shack, at 0.10
- Omega Pharma, at 0.22
- Liquigas, s.t.
- Garmin-Cervelo, at 0.24
- Lampre, s.t.
- Rabobank, at 0.26
- Saxo Bank, at 0.30
- Sky, at 0.37
- Vacansoleil, s.t.
GC after Stage 1:
- Marco Pinotti, HTC
- Lars Ytting Bak, HTC, s.t.
- Kanstantin Sivtsov, HTC, s.t.
- Mark Cavendish, HTC, s.t.
- Craig Lewis, HTC, s.t.