Millar continued by saying: "We won the TTT at the Giro today and Christian is in pink. He rode us into it those last 5 km and crossed that line first because he took us there. Whitey had tears in his eyes when we met him at the bus. He was crying out of pride. Whether we won or had lost, we had ridden it perfectly, the way we had spent the last eight days working towards. And that made him proud. And we were proud."

Team CSC placed second in the stage with six seconds up to the stage winner Slipstream and one second down to third place, High Road. But CSC took the lead in the young riders classification.

"We were really, really close and of course it's a big disappointment that we didn't manage to win this first stage. We gave it 100% in order for Michael Blaudzun to get the Pink Jersey after he'd announced that this is his last season, which made him a perfect choice for this stage. That said it was a big comfort to all of us that Chris Anker managed to get the White Jersey giving him the best possible start to the race," said Team CSC sports director Kim Andersen.

"For me personally this was the best start I could've asked for. It was a fantastic experience. Of course it would've been great if we'd been able to win the stage for Michael, but it was my dream to wear the White Jersey already before the race began and it's brilliant that it's actually come true," said Chris Anker Sørensen and continued:

"To be standing up there on the podium with all those people down below is one of the greatest moments of my entire life. I had goose bumps all over before climbing the podium and it was a big buzz once I got up there!"

Saunier Duval clocked the 15th time, 1'02" behind stage winner Slipstream. Captain Ricardo Riccò said: "We haven´t had an excellent day, but the team did their best and it´s just the first day. Last year, the time-trial in Sardinia wasn´t that good either, and then we had an amazing Giro. Tomorrow´s leg suits my skills, at least theoretically speaking, and I´m quite sure of what I can do. However, I still have to check my shape, since this season has been treating me rather ruthlessly, with falls, illness, and the like. But I´m feeling good, so in a couple of days, after our first contact with the mountains, we´ll see what I really can do."

Rabobank finished sixteenth. "We have done what was in our power. You already know beforehand that you do not have enough true time trial riders in your team so as to continuously keep the team going," said sports director Erik Breukink.

Only four teams lost a limited number of seconds on stage winner Slipstream. That is the reason why Breukink wanted to put the performance into perspective. "Behind those five teams, everyone was ranked rather close to each other."

The strongest riders of the Rabobank team were captain Denis Menchov and German rider Paul Martens. They took the longest turns up front. Last year, when the Giro started off with a team time trial in Sardinia, Mauricio Ardila played a leading role, but not this time. "Everyone was rather equally-matched today. In other words, only Denis and Paul rose above the rest," said Breukink, for whom it is his first appearance as a sports director in the Giro d'Italia.

Astana came in seventh. Sports director Sean Yates said: “Everybody did super great today. No one was suffering and we arrived at the line with all nine rider. Nobody made a mistake during the ride.” Yates added, “Levi was not yet 'Super Levi' but we are really proud. We had no time for preparation and were still able to post up a good time.”

Barloworld came in fifth and  the team was very happy with the result. "This result is like a victory," sports director Alberto Volpi said. The whole nine-man lineup  of the Barloworld squad finished together. "We just had a difficult moment on the climb, without that mistake we could probably have gained one or two positions," Enrico Gasparotto said. "We were great really, we always believed it was possible to do well. We worked a lot to improve our performance in team time trial. I want to say 'bravo' to everyone, without exception."

Last but not least, Mauricio Soler, made an excellent debut. He never stopped to drive or missed a turn. "It's a great result for a super team," the Colombian winner of the mounbtain classification of last years Tour de France said. Gasparotto added: "I saw Soler last week during our team time-trial rehearsal, he was sick and had a cough but today he was a completely different rider, he never stops surprising people."

Todays second stage will take the peloton from Cefalù to Agrigento, over 207 kilometres