The race celebrated its 75th anniversary with an 10pm local time start on a floodlit 13km Team Time Trial course.
Footon-Servetto were the first team off the ramp and finished in a time of 15.03.
It turned out to be the slowest time of the night as it was bettered by first Nicholas Roche's AG2R La Mondiale team and Team Milram before HTC Colombia took to the road.
Keeping all their riders together so that the first five counted as soon as possible, Mark Cavendish was first over the line and his team recorded a time of 14.06.
None of the remaining teams could get near it and Liquigas finished second, some ten seconds down, with Saxo Bank recording a time of 14.18 for third place.
As Cavendish (Pictured below) was first over the line, he takes the leaders red jersey with Peter Velts second and Martin Velts third.
Speaking to the HTC Colombia Press Office after the race, Mark Cavendish, who said that his red jersey was for the whole team, said: "As soon as we did the first training ride on the course on Thursday even after ten minutes on the bike we were riding so well together I had the feeling we were going to win.
"The team time trial is my favourite discipline because the whole team gets rewarded, it's special that way, and at the same time you need to get it one hundred percent right for it to work."
"I get to stand on the podium quite a lot, but that's because of eight other guys hard work. Today we all got to stand on the podium and I'm incredibly proud of what my team-mates did."
Stage two on Sunday goes from Alcalá de Guadaíra - Marbella and is 173km long. You can see the stage and the rest of the Vuelta on British Eurosport.
Picture copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM