Mark Cavendish has taken the first leader's jersey at Tirreno-Adriatico with his Omega Pharma-Quick Step team winning the opening team time trial.
The Belgium-based outfit, which includes two-time world champion Tony Martin, powered through the 16.9km course in 19 minutes and 24 seconds to take line honours in wet conditions.
British national time trial gold medallist Alex Dowsett's Movistar team was 11sec off the pace in second with Cadel Evans's BMC squad in third [19:40]. Sky, led by Chris Froome, came in at 19:49 for seventh.
"Two words: Tony Martin. He did the majority today," Cavendish said post-race.
"The planning they put into it but without putting too much pressure on it ... We finished with five but everybody had a part to play."
Omega Pharma-Quick Step entered the stage as hot favourites being the team time trial world champions. Cavendish will have an opportunity to defend the leader's jersey with tomorrow's 232km trek to Indicatore one for the sprinters.
The Manxman will face rival Andre Greipel [Lotto Belisol] there for the first time this season after Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne was cancelled due to snow. Matt Goss [Orica-GreenEdge], Tyler Farrar [Garmin-Sharp], Tour de France green jersey winner Peter Sagan [Cannondale], Arnaud Demare [FDJ] and John Degenkolb [Argos-Shimano] are amongst the other stage two contenders.
Results
Tirreno-Adriatico 2013, stage one: San Vincenzo to Donoratico, 16.9km TTT
1. Omega Pharma-QuickStep in 19:24
2. Movistar at 11 secs
3. BMC Racing at 16 secs
4. Cannondale at 19 secs
5. Astana at 20 secs
6. Orica-GreenEdge at 24 secs
7. Sky at 25 secs
8. Saxo-Tinkoff at 29 secs
9. Lampre-Merida at 35 secs
10. RadioShack-Leopard at 36 secs
Overall classification after stage one
1. Mark Cavendish (GBr) Omega Pharma-QuickStep
2. Tony Martin (Ger) Omega Pharma-QuickStep at same time
3. Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma-QuickStep at same time
4. Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Omega Pharma-QuickStep at same time
5. Niki Terpstra (Ned) Omega Pharma-QuickStep at same time
6. Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Movistar at 11 secs
7. Benat Intxausti (Spa) Movistar at 11 secs
8. Andrey Amador (CRc) Movistar at 11 secs
9. Jonathan Castroviejo(Spa) Movistar at 11 secs
10. Eros Capecchi (Ita) Movistar at 11 secs
11. Alex Dowsett (GBr) Movistar at 11 secs
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