Giro d’Italia 2015 Stage 1

photo credits @ Twitter 

Orica GreenEdge claimed the opening stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia today, after vanquishing their rivals during the Team Time Trial event.

The Australian team set the fastest time of 19:26, along today’s 17.6 kilometer course, to beat Tinkoff-Saxo by 7 seconds.

Race Highlights

Orica GreenEdge recorded the second fastest time at the intermediate check point, subsequently pushing Astana team off the top of the leader board.

From there, Tinkoff-Saxo clocked the fastest time through intermediate check, briefly threatening Orica’s defense over last year’s TTT title. 

However, the Russian team began to wane during the closing minutes of the stage, while also dropping their leader Alberto Contador for a brief period, before they were able to regroup and hang on for second place. 

As a result of their victory, Orica’s Simon Gerrans now dons the leader’s jersey .

Stage 1 TTT results
1 Orica GreenEdge 19:26
2 Tinkoff-Saxo + 00:07
3 Astana Pro Team + 00:13
4 Etixx – Quick-Step + 00:19
5 Movistar Team + 00:21
6 BMC Racing Team + 00:25
7 IAM Cycling
8 FDJ.fr + 00:26
9 Team Sky + 00:27
10 Team Katusha
11 Trek Factory Racing + 00:29
12 Lotto Soudal
13 Team LottoNL-Jumbo + 00:36
14 Bardiani CSF + 00:37
15 CCC Sprandi Polkowice + 00:45
16 AG2R La Mondiale + 00:48
17 Team Giant-Alpecin + 00:49
18 Southeast Pro Cycling + 00:52
19 Cannondale-Garmin + 00:53
20 Nippo – Vini Fantini + 00:57
21 Lampre-Merida + 00:59
22 Androni Giocattoli + 01:03