Columbia-Highroad’s Tour of Italy got off to a perfect start as the team blasted to victory in the opening team time trial on Saturday, with Mark Cavendish the race’s first leader.  The squad was first to start in the 20.5-kilometre team trial in Venice, but after more than two hours, their time of 21 minutes and 50 seconds remained firmly at the top of the classification.

Columbia-Highroad’s 21st victory of the season enabled Mark Cavendish, the first rider across the finish line, to claim his first-ever leader’s jersey in a major Tour, and to become the first  Briton in history to lead in the Giro D’Italia.

“It’s me who’s wearing the leader’s jersey, but it’s the team’s victory.  They all participated in it and they all gave it 100 percent,” Cavendish said afterwards.  “This is really big for us.  It’s the centenary edition of the Giro and after winning Milan San Remo now we’ve won the opening stage of the Tour of Italy.  I was watching the race in the press tent after we’d finished, and I was really nervous, but it all turned out well in the end.  I have to thank everybody in the team.  Everybody did their job well and they rode a perfect race. It’s a victory we’ve all shared in, even if I’m wearing the leader’s jersey.”

“This is probably the biggest win we’ve ever taken,” added manager Bob Stapleton, “not just because it’s the centenary Giro, but also because events like this are what Columbia-Highroad is all about.  A team time trial is all about working well together as a unit,  and what we saw was a truly great performance by all nine riders in the squad.”

Cavendish confirmed that he will be gunning to defend his leader’s jersey and simultaneously go for a bunch sprint win on Sunday’s stage, 156 kilometres long and running from Jesolo to Trieste.  If he succeeds, it will be Cavendish’s third stage win in the Giro and seventh in a major Tour, as well as his ninth of the 2009 season.