Tirreno-Adriatico (st. 1)

3rd place for solid, focused telephone squad at Tirreno-Adriatico's opening ride to San Vincenzo, just eighteen seconds behind world champions OPQS

It was a surprise for many to see the Movistar Team excelling at the opening stage of Tirreno-Adriatico twelve months ago to take second, beating some of the world’s best squads in their way. However, it was sort of a confirmation -yet another one- for them as they claimed 3rd on day one of the 2014 edition, a 18.5km course from Donoratico to San Vincenzo, mixture of technical zones and long straights, where the telephonee squad shone again with skill.

A really strong time through the intermediate checkpoint -one second behind Orica, then provisional leaders-, the eight riders from the Blue squad kept the pace on to cross the line together in seven -Igor Antón was the only one to get dropped- and place 2nd, seven seconds slowed than the Australians. The gap would later become 18″, as world champions Omega Pharma-Quick Step clocked the best time of the afternoon to take Mark Cavendish into the first maglia azzurra.

Nairo Quintana now sits firmly into top places overall as the ‘Corsa dei Due Mari’ tackles two predictable sprint finishes on Thursday and Friday. Stage two will cover 166km between San Vincenzo and Cascina, with three small rated climbs in the first half of the parcours.