April 28, 2015 (Juraparc, Switzerland) – Storming the 19.2-kilometre course in a winning time of 21 minutes and 19 seconds, the team crossed the line to narrowly edge out nearest rivals Orica-GreenEdge by under a second.

After a superb team effort it was Geraint Thomas who led the six-rider group across the line, meaning it was the Welshman who pulled on the first yellow jersey of the race.

Katusha, and runner-up for the last two seasons Simon Spilak, came home third quickest, five seconds back, while Etixx – Quick-Step (+14″) and Astana (+17″) rounded out the top five under grey skies in Switzerland.

Defending champion Chris Froome crossed the line alongside his team-mates and was able to put time into all of his general classification rivals at the first opportunity.

Victory in the team time trial proved particularly sweet for Team Sky after missing out by less than a second a week ago in the same discipline at Giro del Trentino.

“It’s nice to be on the other side for a change,” admitted new race leader Thomas after the race. “We usually come second by a narrow margin so it was great to get the win today.

“The team time trial is something the team wants to target a bit more. We’ve always been up there but we’ve never really had much focus on it. We’re looking to keep improving in that area so it’s great to win.

“We wanted to go as fast as possible and do the best ride to try and win the stage, for us all, not just to get the yellow. It’s great for morale and to come away with the win is really nice.”

Winning start

Run along the side of the Lac de Joux, the course suited the powerful TTT teams but held a sting in the tail with a late climb in the form of the Col du Mont d’Orzeires.

Cannondale-Garmin were the first outfit to dip under 22 minutes on the course but their time was smashed to the tune of 40 seconds by Orica-GreenEdge.

The benchmark held up well, with BMC Racing looking set for a strong run only to lose time on the climb as their fifth man became distanced. Sixth place was the end result, 19 seconds back, while Movistar and Nairo Quintana dropped 40 seconds on the opening test.

Team Sky matched GreenEdge exactly at the intermediate sprint, with Danny Pate and Nicolas Roche working hard before pulling off in the closing stages. That left Thomas, Froome, Pete Kennaugh, Luke Rowe, Ian Stannard and Elia Viviani to cross the line to bag a big opening victory.

Results

1. Team Sky 0:21:19
2. Orica GreenEdge
3. Team Katusha 0:05
4. Etixx-Quick-Step 0:14
5. Astana Pro Team 0:17
6. BMC Racing Team 0:19
7. FDJ.fr 0:22
8. IAM Cycling 0:24
9. Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:40
10. Movistar Team
11. Lampre-Merida 0:41
12. Trek Factory Racing 0:42
13. Team Giant-Alpecin 0:50
14. Tinkoff-Saxo 0:55
15. Team LottoNL-Jumbo
16. Team Europcar 1:07
17. Lotto Soudal 1:12
18. AG2R La Mondiale 1:22

GC after Stage 1

1. Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Team Sky 0:21:00
2. Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky
3. Ian Stannard (Gbr) Team Sky
4. Luke Rowe (Gbr) Team Sky
5. Christopher Froome (Gbr) Team Sky
6. Peter Kennaugh (Gbr) Team Sky
7. Michael Albasini (Sui) Orica Greenedge
8. Simon Gerrans (Aus) Orica Greenedge
9. Svein Tuft (Can) Orica Greenedge
10. Ivan Santaromita (Ita) Orica Greenedge
11. Simon Yates (Gbr) Orica Greenedge
12. Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Team Katusha 0:05
13. Yury Trofimov (Rus) Team Katusha
14. Pavel Kochetkov (Rus) Team Katusha
15. Simon Spilak (Slo) Team Katusha
16. Sergei Chernetski (Rus) Team Katusha
17. Egor Silin (Rus) Team Katusha
18. Maxime Bouet (Fra) Etixx-Quick-Step 0:14
19. Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Etixx-Quick-Step
20. Gianni Meersman (Bel) Etixx-Quick-Step
21. Pieter Serry (Bel) Etixx-Quick-Step
22. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx-Quick-Step
23. Tony Martin (Ger) Etixx-Quick-Step
24. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:17
25. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team
26. Lieuwe Westra (Ned) Astana Pro Team
27. Michele Scarponi (Ita) Astana Pro Team
28. Rein Taaramae (Est) Astana Pro Team
29. Rohan Dennis (Aus) Bmc Racing Team 0:19
30. Danilo Wyss (Sui) Bmc Racing Team
31. Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bmc Racing Team
32. Manuel Senni (Ita) Bmc Racing Team
33. Darwin Atapuma Hurtado (Col) Bmc Racing Team
34. David De La Cruz Melgarejo (Esp) Etixx-Quick-Step 0:21
35. Steve Morabito (Sui) Fdj.Fr 0:22
36. Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra) Fdj.Fr
37. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Fdj.Fr
38. Alexandre Geniez (Fra) Fdj.Fr
39. Arthur Vichot (Fra) Fdj.Fr
40. Stef Clement (Ned) Iam Cycling 0:24
41. Mathias Frank (Sui) Iam Cycling
42. Marcel Wyss (Sui) Iam Cycling
43. Jarlinson Pantano (Col) Iam Cycling
44. Matthias Brandle (Aut) Iam Cycling
45. Andriy Grivko (Ukr) Astana Pro Team 0:34
46. Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:40
47. Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team
48. Daniel Martin (Irl) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team
49. Thomas Danielson (USA) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team
50. Janier Alexis Acevedo Colle (Col) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team
51. Andre Fernando S. Martins Cardoso (Por) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team
52. Winner Anacona Gomez (Col) Movistar Team
53. Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Esp) Movistar Team
54. John Gadret (Fra) Movistar Team
55. Andrey Amador Bakkazakova (Crc) Movistar Team
56. Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar Team
57. Eros Capecchi (Ita) Movistar Team
58. Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Por) Lampre-Merida 0:41
59. Tsgabu Gebremaryam Grmay (Eth) Lampre-Merida
60. Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida
61. Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre-Merida
62. Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Col) Lampre-Merida
63. Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek Factory Racing 0:42
64. Kristof Vandewalle (Bel) Trek Factory Racing
65. Boy Van Poppel (Ned) Trek Factory Racing
66. Matthew Busche (USA) Trek Factory Racing
67. Fabio Silvestre (Por) Trek Factory Racing
68. Riccardo Zoidl (Aut) Trek Factory Racing
69. Stefan Kueng (Sui) Bmc Racing Team 0:44
70. Campbell Flakemore (Aus) Bmc Racing Team
71. Thierry Hupond (Fra) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:50
72. Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Team Giant-Alpecin
73. Luka Mezgec (Slo) Team Giant-Alpecin
74. Chad Haga (USA) Team Giant-Alpecin
75. Georg Preidler (Aut) Team Giant-Alpecin
76. Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) Team Giant-Alpecin
77. Reto Hollenstein (Sui) Iam Cycling 0:52
78. Ruben Plaza Molina (Esp) Lampre-Merida 0:53
79. Christopher Juul Jensen (Den) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:55
80. Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) Tinkoff-Saxo
81. Bruno Pires (Por) Tinkoff-Saxo
82. Chris Anker Sörensen (Den) Tinkoff-Saxo
83. Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo
84. Jesper Hansen (Den) Tinkoff-Saxo
85. Pawel Poljanski (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo
86. Tom Van Asbroeck (Bel) Team Lottonl-Jumbo
87. Robert Gesink (Ned) Team Lottonl-Jumbo
88. Jos Van Emden (Ned) Team Lottonl-Jumbo
89. Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Team Lottonl-Jumbo
90. Rick Flens (Ned) Team Lottonl-Jumbo
91. Andrey Zeits (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:57
92. Alessandro Vanotti (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:59
93. Ivan Rovny (Rus) Tinkoff-Saxo 1:01
94. Rory Sutherland (Aus) Movistar Team 1:05
95. Imanol Erviti (Esp) Movistar Team
96. Anton Vorobyev (Rus) Team Katusha 1:06
97. Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar 1:07
98. Bryan Naulleau (Fra) Team Europcar
99. Romain Sicard (Fra) Team Europcar
100. Romain Guillemois (Fra) Team Europcar
101. Maxime Mederel (Fra) Team Europcar
102. Angelo Tulik (Fra) Team Europcar
103. Michael Hepburn (Aus) Orica Greenedge 1:08
104. Maxime Monfort (Bel) Lotto Soudal 1:12
105. Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Soudal
106. Greg Henderson (Nzl) Lotto Soudal
107. Bart De Clercq (Bel) Lotto Soudal
108. Sander Armee (Bel) Lotto Soudal
109. Nathan Haas (Aus) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 1:18
110. Alan Marangoni (Ita) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team
111. Carlos Alberto Betancur Gomez (Col) Ag2R La Mondiale 1:22
112. Jan Bakelants (Bel) Ag2R La Mondiale
113. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) Ag2R La Mondiale
114. Ben Gastauer (Lux) Ag2R La Mondiale
115. Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2R La Mondiale
116. Brian Bulgac (Ned) Team Lottonl-Jumbo 1:55
117. Carter Jones (USA) Team Giant-Alpecin 1:56
118. Jerome Cousin (Fra) Team Europcar 1:58
119. Fabrice Jeandesboz (Fra) Team Europcar
120. Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) Fdj.Fr 2:00
121. Brett Lancaster (Aus) Orica Greenedge 2:04
122. Sam Bewley (Nzl) Orica Greenedge
123. Lawrence Warbasse (USA) Iam Cycling 2:07
124. Michal Golas (Pol) Etixx-Quick-Step
125. Jonathan Fumeaux (Sui) Iam Cycling
126. Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 2:13
127. Tosh Van Der Sande (Bel) Lotto Soudal 2:18
128. Manuele Mori (Ita) Lampre-Merida 2:34
129. Maxim Belkov (Rus) Team Katusha 2:47
130. Matteo Bono (Ita) Lampre-Merida 3:00
131. Dennis Vanendert (Bel) Lotto Soudal 3:07
132. Danny Pate (USA) Team Sky 3:12
133. Cheng Ji (Chn) Team Giant-Alpecin 3:16
134. Eugenio Alafaci (Ita) Trek Factory Racing 3:20
135. Marco Coledan (Ita) Trek Factory Racing
136. Mikael Cherel (Fra) Ag2R La Mondiale 3:24
137. Julien Berard (Fra) Ag2R La Mondiale
138. Alexis Vuillermoz (Fra) Ag2R La Mondiale
139. Amaël Moinard (Fra) Bmc Racing Team 3:45
140. Jérémy Roy (Fra) Fdj.Fr 4:04
141. Bertjan Lindeman (Ned) Team Lottonl-Jumbo 4:32
142. Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Team Lottonl-Jumbo
143. Cédric Pineau (Fra) Fdj.Fr 4:34
144. Stig Broeckx (Bel) Lotto Soudal 5:00