Leopard Trek won the team time trial on the opening day of the Vuelta a España.
The team time trial was a 13.5km course around Benidorm and featured an early climb to test the twenty two competing teams.
Skil-Shimano were first off the ramp at 17.02 local time and finished in a time of 16 mins and forty eight seconds.
It was a time that Leopard Trek beat by eighteen seconds to win with Liquigas Cannondale who were last off the ramp, four seconds back and HTC Highroad team coming third despite losing Mark Cavendish some nine seconds back.
Team Sky finished in 20th place.
Speaking about his team's win, Fabian Cancellera (pictured below0 said to our friends at lavuelta.com: "I'm relieved. “On Wednesday I had a bee sting and it was pretty bad. I spent six hours at the hospital. On Thursday I travelled to Spain and I rode a little bit on Friday. The race today went well for us. Our tactic in the climb paid off. On the flat, I gave everything and it paid off."
After the first stage, Leopard Trek's Jakob Fuglsang leads the race.
Daniel Martin is 58th, Nicholas Roche 126th, Chris Froome 130th, Ian Stannard 132nd, Bradley Wiggins 133rd and Mark Cavendish 190th.
Picture copyright Tour of Spain/Graham Watson