Of the GC riders, Cadel Evans was one of the two big winners in today's team time trial at the Giro d'Italia when his BMC team finished the stage in 3rd. The Australian was pleased to have put time into most of his rivals but also regretted a few incidents that may have cost them the stage win.

Cadel Evans said he was pleased with the BMC Racing Team's third-place finish in Friday's opening team time trial of the Giro d'Italia. The BMC Racing Team finished seven seconds off of ORICA-GreenEDGE's winning time in the 21.7-kilometer race through damp streets of Northern Ireland.

"We've started in a good way," Evans said. "I think we had the legs to do more. But in these conditions, we were a little bit unlucky with Brent Bookwalter's crash and Ben Hermans's puncture. It took a little bit of power away from us. But I think we rode well to get the results that we got. Compliments to the guys for that."

Rain hindered some of the earlier-starting teams, but the showers subsided as the evening wore on. After starting fourth-to-last of the 22 squads, Evans and five of his teammates powered their beikes across the line in 24:49 for a 52 kph average. Omega Pharma-Quick Step, which started immediately after the BMC Racing Team, was two seconds quicker to take runner-up honors.

"For the general classification, I think our result is quite promising," Evans said. "We have already made some time gains to some of the favorites and that is really favorable for the overall."

Bookwalter, who was runner-up in the Stage 1 individual time trial in his last Giro appearance in 2010, crashed during the team's pre-race reconnaissance ride. But he was not seriously hurt.

"The rider in front of me shielded my vision from an orange construction cone and I just ran straight into it," Bookwalter said. "Fortunately, we were going pretty slowly and I had a lot of clothes on. So that absorbed most of the damage."