HTC-Highroad wins opening team time trial at Giro d'Italia

“Disciplined” is a word often used to describe the US-based HTC-Highroad pro cycling team.

The 9-man squad at the Giro d'Italia showed how discipline pays off on Saturday when it won the team time trial in Turin. The victory put Italy's Marco Pinotti in the pink jersey and four teammates in the Top 5 overall positions.

We may get to see that discipline displayed by HTC-Highroad again on Sunday in a peloton-controlling lead-out train in an attempt deliver Mark Cavendish to the front of an expected sprint finish.

Team RadioShack finished second in the 12-mile-long team time trial at 10 seconds behind, followed by Liquigas-Cannondale and Omega Pharma-Lotto trailing at 22 seconds and Garmin-Cervelo at 24 seconds.

Lost ground

Of the 23 teams to race the winding course in Turin, some showed they had no stomach for the grind of practicing a winning team time trial style.

Geox-TMC, for instance, finished in 18th place. That means that team leader Denis Menchov, a previous Giro winner and one of this year's favorites, ends the first day 53 seconds in the hole.

Liquigas-Cannondale finished a respectable third, enabling another favorite, Vincenzo Nibali, to lose only 22 seconds. Five-time Grand Tour winner Alberto Contador will start Sunday's stage 30 seconds behind Pinotti in the standings.

US cyclists

HTC-Columbia and Garmin-Cervelo, among some others, finished with only the minimum 5 cyclists in the lead group that crossed the finish line. The first five are awarded the same time.

The fifth man across the finish line for HTC Columbia was Craig Lewis of Greenville, SC, one of 8 Americans in this year's Giro. That put him in 5th in the General Classification.

Another US cyclist, Bjorn Selander of Team RadioShack, earned the distinction of winning the white jersey competition for the Young Rider classification.

Sunday stage

Stage 2 is a long — 139-mile (224km) — flat bike ride from Alba to Parma that is expected to end in a massive sprint.

There is one climb along the course, the 315-meter Tabiano Castello, just high enough to enable the first one over to earn the King of the Mountains jersey.