Its never an easy task to be the first rider off and today that falls to one of the race favourites, Jose Ivan Gutierrez Palacios. Can he lead Agritubel to the ProTour with a strong result?
Only time will tell whether 1h05'15 is good enough. It beat Brutt, Scholz, Pate and Tankink but then Une Orbitel's Javier Aramendia went into the lead by 2 seconds.
Cozz and Nelson cant do much and Jan Hruska goes 3rd, leveling Gutierrez Palacios time but being given as slower. Godfrey, Tendero and Medici couldnt trouble the top 3 but then Aussie TT Champ Ben Day set a stunning time of 1h04'36, some 37 seconds ahead.
Pedro Nicacio then went 2nd, jsut a few seconds ahead of Aramendia.
Kittel and Mortensen made no impact, but Roman Krezuiger did, going 2nd, 27 seconds behind Day.
After Gallego, comes Viktor Hugo Pena. The Colombian has passed Ed Clancy and storms into the lead with 1h04'11.
The next man to finish is Leif Hoste and is over 3km away when Pena crosses the line. But that isnt an indication of slowness as Hoste takes 2nd place.
Eibegger, Gallagher and Astarloza cannot do anything and this looks like being the first race of the season where Tinkoff fail to scare any points. Oscar Pereiro struggles to 11th while Beppu is much further down.
Next is Slipstream's Jason Donald and he takes 4th. Voigt goes 7th, and then Vicioso goes 11th. Not for long though as Sergi Escobar takes 11th from him, unable to repeat his Denmark form.
Pozzovivvo finishes a long way down, but SouthAustralia's Grabovski goes 6th. Vladimir Miholjevic is outside of the top 20 but here comes Sebastien Lang!!
He crosses the line and ... WOW! 1h 03'39, he had obliterated Pena's time by 32 seconds. Joseph Cooper goes by making no impression leaving 3 riders left to finish, and theyre all within 500 metres of each other!
Grivko is down in 19th, Ortega 34th. But what about Wiggins?
Its 3rd place for the Brit!
