HTC-Highroad took the Team Time Trial as the Giro D'Italia got under way today.
The team which feature Brit Mark Cavendish completed the 19.3 kilometre course from Venaria Reale to Turin with a ten second advantage over closest rivals RadioShack.
Five times Italian national time trial champion, Marco Pinotti was the first HTC-Highroad rider to complete the course, taking the overall lead of the race.
"It's a huge honor to be wearing the maglia rosa," Pinotti said to the HTC Highroad Press Office. "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."
"But we'd ridden over the race route this morning and we'd prepared everything right down to the last detail."
"Looking at the result, we couldn't have done better. It's a great day for the team."