Mark Cavendish leads in Italy as Cadel Evans finished third

BRITISH sprint ace Mark Cavendish is the first leader of the Tirreno-Adriatico race after his Omega Pharma team won the opening team time trial.

Cadel Evans

BRITISH sprint ace Mark Cavendish is the first leader of the Tirreno-Adriatico race after his Omega Pharma team won the opening team time trial over 16.9km from San Vincenzo to Donoratico.

The former world road-race champion led his teammates over the finish line in 19 minutes 24 seconds, 11 seconds ahead of Movistar with the BMC team of former Tour de France winner Cadel Evans coming home third at 16 seconds.

The winner paid tribute to world time-trial champion and German teammate Tony Martin.

"It's a very happy day for us, we're the world champions in this discipline, Tony Martin did fantastic work but everyone was exceptional," said Cavendish.

Cavendish is not expected to hold the lead in the week-long event, which features three former Tour de France winners.

Evans, Spaniard Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck of Luxemburg are in the field as well as last year's Paris-Nice winner Vincenzo Nibali and Team Sky's Chris Froome.

Nibali of Italy and the Astana team finished fifth, 20 seconds back with Tour de France runner-up Froome, in the Sky line-up that finished seventh at 25 seconds.

Contador's Saxo Bank team finished next, 29 seconds behind, with Schleck's RadioShack in 10th, 36 seconds off the pace.

STAGE

1. Omega Pharma - Quick-Step 19min24sec

2. Movistar 11

3. BMC Racing 16

4. Cannondale 19

5. Astana 20

6. Orica 24

7. Team Sky 25

8. Saxo - Tinkoff 29

9. Lampre 35

10. RadioShack 36

11. Blanco 37

12. NetApp 39

13. Katyusha 44

14. Argos 51

15. Lotto 54

16. Garmin 57

17. Team MTN 1:00

18. FDJ 1:02

19. Vacansoleil 1:04

20. AG2R 1:05

21. Vini Fantini 1:06

22. Euskaltel same time

OVERALL STANDINGS

1. Mark Cavendish (IOM/OPQ) 19min24sec

2. Tony Martin (GER/OPQ) same time

3. Michal Kwiatkowski (POL/OPQ) s.t.

4. Zdenek Stybar (CZE/OPQ) s.t.

5. Niki Terpstra (NED/OPQ) s.t.

6. Giovanni Visconti (ITA/MOV) 11

7. Benat Intxausti (ESP/MOV) s.t.

8. Andrey Amador (CRC/MOV) s.t.

9. Jonathan Castroviejo (ESP/MOV) s.t.

10. Eros Capecchi (ITA/MOV) s.t.

11. Alex Dowsett (ENG/MOV) s.t.

12. Juan Jose Cobo (ESP/MOV) s.t.

13. Taylor Phinney (USA/BMC) 16

14. Cadel Evans (AUS/BMC) s.t.

15. Steven Cummings (ENG/BMC) s.t.

16. Thor Hushovd (NOR/BMC) s.t.

17. Michael Schar (SUI/BMC) s.t.

18. Moreno Moser (ITA/CAN) 19

19. Kristjan Koren (SLO/CAN) s.t.

20. Damiano Caruso (ITA/CAN) s.t.