McEwen passes Giro trial

Australian veteran Robbie McEwen led home RadioShack as it finished second among the 23 teams in the Giro d'Italia's opening stage team time trial.

Australian veteran Robbie McEwen led home Team RadioShack as it finished second among the 23 teams in the Giro d'Italia's opening stage team time trial.

The seasoned sprinter found himself in the unfamiliar position of sixth on the general classification as his American-owned team powered in 10 seconds down on the powerful HTC-Highroad combination which put Italian Marco Pinotti into the leader's pink jersey.

HTC-Highroad finished with five riders left together as Australian Mark Renshaw came in 24 seconds back.

Omega Pharma-Lotto took a surprise third place over the 19.3km team time trial course from Venaria Reale to Turin, 22 seconds back, just ahead of the Liquigas team of one of the pre-race favourites, Vincenzo Nibali.

Tour de France champion Alberto Contador's Saxo Bank team finished down in eighth, 30 seconds off the pace.

"It's a very good result," Contador said.

"I'm very happy with the team's work."

Pinotti finished ninth on the tour last year.

"It's a huge honour to be wearing the pink jersey," said Pinotti. "But this is a victory that belongs to the whole team. I can't thank them enough. We made a very strong start, and the best riders took the longest turns on the front.

"We made sure we kept a steady pace throughout and that's always important. It was flat all the way but it wasn't an easy course.

"You had to be careful with the tram lines and on the corners, some of them were very difficult."

Contador is waiting to find out if the Court of Arbitration for Sport will opt to overturn the Spanish cycling federation's decision to clear him over doping allegations, and he said it was a relief to be competing again.

"For my part, I'm very happy that the Giro has started," he said. "The days before the start seemed very long."

AFP