BMC Racing Team's Greg Van Avermaet rode to a career-best result in an individual time trial Wednesday, finishing third in the opening stage of Tirreno-Adriatico as teammate Daniel Oss was sixth.

Van Avermaet said he was surprised at his performance in the 5.4-kilometer race against the clock. Adriano Malori (Movistar Team) took the win, one second ahead of past world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) and two seconds faster than Van Avermaet.

"I am happy with it. I just gave it my all," Van Avermaet said. "With third, I am happy. It is my first time up there. I did a good time and for me it is a big surprise."

Since turning professional in 2007, Van Avermaet had never finished better than 29th in an individual time trial in a WorldTour race. His best result in any individual time as a professional had been fourth at the Tour de l'Ain prologue in August of 2010.

Runner-up at Strade Bianche last Saturday and third in a stage of both the Tour of Qatar and Tour of Oman last month, Van Avermaet said he was encouraged when he heard from Sport Director Fabio Baldato at the intermediate check point that he wwas on target for a good time.

"It was a good course for me," he said. "There were a few corners, so I could ride from corner to corner. The last two kilometers were pretty hard because it was next to the seaside. It was hard to keep the speed up there. I tried to go a good speed out of the corner and then go as fast as possible to the finish. Fabio told me I was doing a good time and that gave me a big motivation. Normally, I hear nothing during a time trial."

Oss, a member of the BMC Racing Team's world championship team time trial squad last September, set the early time to beat before ending up four seconds back of the winning time.

"With the change from the team time trial to a prologue, I think some guys may have not been motivated," Oss said. "But we knew our team could put two or three guys in the top 10." 

A second member of that world team time trial squad, Manuel Quinziato, was 11 seconds off the winning time in 27th place. Baldato said the overall results were satisfying, especially after race organizers changed a planned 22.7 km team time trial to a much shorter, individual time trial due to storms earlier this week that littered much of the course with damage.

"I am happy for the guys because we came here really focused for the team time trial," Baldato said. "We were well prepared and did great training on Monday for that. After the change, the guys were still motivated to do the switch to the individual time trial."