Giro d'Italia stage 1: Pinotti in the pink as HTC own the road into Turin

Marco Pinotti is wearing the Maglia Rosa tonight after HTC stormed to a team time trial win in Turin. Pinotti, the Italian TT champ, swaps that jersey for pink tonight after HTC-Highroad posted a time of 20:59 to take the top spot.

HTC finished with five riders after Frantisek Rabon flatted and three others were dropped from the scorching pace, but they did enough to outpace dark horses Team Radioshack, who finished ten seconds down. Liquigas were a further 11 seconds behind, as were Omega-Phrama Lotto. Garmin-Cervélo – who also finished with five – lost 24 seconds and ended up fifth placed on the day.

Alberto Contador's Saxo Bank Sungard team could do no better than eighth and the favourite to win the general classification will start tomorrow's stage half a minute back on Pinotti and his HTC Columbia teammates, however the Spaniard will probably be reasonably pleased that he has only conceded 8 seconds to Vincenzo Nibalia of Liquigas the man many feel most likely to pose the biggest threat to a Contador victory.

Giro Stage 1 Team Time Trial Top 10

1  HTC - HIGHROAD                              20:59    0:00 
2  TEAM RADIOSHACK                             21:09    0:10 
3  LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE                       21:21    0:22 
4  OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO                        21:21    0:22 
5  TEAM GARMIN - CERVELO                       21:23    0:24 
6  LAMPRE - ISD                                21:23    0:24 
7  RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM                       21:25    0:26 
8  SAXO BANK SUNGARD                           21:29    0:30 
9  SKY PROCYCLING                              21:36    0:37 
10 VACANSOLEIL DCM PRO C.TEAM                  21:36    0:37

Giro Stage 1 Top 20 after Stage 1

1  PINOTTI Marco 	  THR 	               20:59 	0:00 	
2  BAK Lars Ytting 	  THR 	                        0:00 	
3  SIVTSOV Kanstantsin    THR                           0:00 	
4  CAVENDISH Mark 	  THR 	                        0:00 	
5  LEWIS Craig 	          THR 	                        0:00 	
6  MCEWEN Robert 	  RSH 	                        0:10 	
7  MACHADO Tiago 	  RSH 	                        0:10 	
8  BEPPU Fumiyuki 	  RSH 	                        0:10 	
9  SELANDER Bjorn 	  RSH 	                        0:10 	
10 HUNTER Robert 	  RSH 	                        0:10 
11 DEIGNAN Philip         RSH                           0:10
12 POPOVYCH Yaroslav      RSH                           0:10
13 NIBALI Vincenzo        LIQ                           0:22
14 AGNOLI Valerio         LIQ                           0:22
15 SABATINI Fabio         LIQ                           0:22
16 SZMYD Sylvester        LIQ                           0:22
17 DALL'ANTONIA Tiziano   LIQ                           0:22
18 CAPECCHI Eros          LIQ                           0:22
19 VANOTTI Alessandro     LIQ                           0:22
20 VEIKKANEN Jussi        OLO                           0:22

Full report to follow.