Not known for their time trialing skills, it was all about limiting their losses for Colombia in yesterday's Giro d'Italia team time trial but the team proved how far they have come in the collective discipline by putting in a good performance. Usually near the very bottom of the standings, the South American team finished 18th to get Fabio Duarte's GC campaign off to a respectable start.

For just less than four minutes under the rain in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Team Colombia’s Leonardo Duque was the first (virtual) Maglia Rosa of the 97th Giro d’Italia. Team Colombia had just concluded its 21,7 km Team Time Trial effort clocking a 26.05 time, after being the first team down the ramp and lighting up the enthusiasm of a huge number of fans on both sides of the whole route until the end of the race, in spite of variable weather.

The pink moment for Duque, the first of five Team Colombia riders who got together to the finish, ended when Orica-GreenEDGE capped a superb performance with the best time, 24.42, winning the stage and eventually leading CanadianSvein Tuft to wear the first Maglia Rosa on his 37th birthday. Behind Orica, Rigoberto Uran’s Omega Pharma-Quickstep (+ 0.05) and Cadel Evans’ BMC (+0.07) rounded out the day’s podium.

Team Colombia suffered a 1.23 overall delay, that still has Leonardo Duque, Fabio Duarte, Edwin Avila, Jarlinson Pantano and Carlos Julian Quintero  in front of one of the big GC favorites, Joaquim Rodriguez, whose Katusha team finished with a 1.33 gap.

Down on the route at 17.50 local time, the Escarabajos enjoyed an excellent start, clocking a 9.09 intermediate after 7km (5th best at the end of the race), but could not keep on the same pace in the second half of the race, facing headwind and some light rain in the final kilometres.

“It was not a memorable display, but all in all we managed to contain the damage on a route suited for big rouleurs and TT specialists," General Manager Claudio Corti explained. “Our start had been a really good one, maybe even too fast, and we paid for it later in the race, also due to the lack of TT specialists and to the weather, that changed several times through the afternoon. Nevertheless, a traditionally critical juncture is now behind us, and we look forward with unchanged confidence to what’s next.”

Instead, the Giro of Irish Daniel Martin (Garmin) ended after less than 20 km, due to a crash involving 4 of his team riders after a slide on the wet tarmac. Collarbone fracture for him, even harder to swallow as it happened in his own Ireland island.

Belfast is getting ready to welcome another party for the second stage of the Corsa Rosa, starting and finishing in Northern Ireland’s Capital. The peloton will face 218 km on a relatively flat course, but teams and their leaders will need to pay attention to the strong wind, particularly when skirting the North Sea.