For the second time in three years, Team HTC-HighRoad powered to victory in the opening team time trial of the Tour of Italy, with local hero Marco Pinotti capturing the race lead before tomorrow's stage 2.

Team HTC-Highroad completed the 19.5 kilometer course from Venaria Reale to Torino with a ten second advantage over closest rivals Team RadioShack and 22 seconds ahead of Team Liquigas-Cannondale, featuring overall Giro title favorite Vincenzo Nibali.

Biggest favorite for the overall Giro d'Italia victory, three-time Tour de France Champion Alberto Contador and his fellow Team Saxo Bank-SunGard riders lost 30 seconds to Team HTC-HighRoad.

Italy is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its unification this year, and five time Italian time trial champion Marco Pinotti was the first HTC-Highroad rider to cross the finish line in Torino, thereby taking the overall lead.

Pinotti finished ninth in last year's Tour of Italy and won the final time trial stage in 2008. He also led the race in 2007.

"It's a huge honor to be wearing the maglia rosa, but this is a victory that belongs to the whole team. I can't thank them enough. We made a very strong start, and the best riders took the longest turns on the front. We made sure we kept a steady pace throughout and that's always important," an honored Pinotti told Roadcycling.com and our mobile sister site Roadcycling.mobi after being celebrated on the podium with his teammates.

"It was flat all the way but it wasn't an easy course, you had to be careful with the tram lines and on the corners, some of them were very difficult. "But we'd ridden over the race route this morning and we'd prepared everything right down to the last detail. Looking at the result, we couldn't have done better. It's a great day for the team," Pinotti added.

Commenting on race favorite Contador's performance today, Team Saxo Bank-SunGard boss Bjarne Riis told Roadcycling.com and Roadcycling.mobi "I'm absolutely content with the guys' performance today. They were a bit nervous before rolling out but when they started the course, they did it splendidly. The pace was high and they were working together beautifully."

"We only lost a few seconds to the biggest rivals overall and that's the main focus for us. The main thing is the result in Milano (where the Giro ends, ed.). In the next few stages our goal is to stay out of bad luck and the crashes that might occur in the bunch sprints," Riis added.

Already the winner of the Giro's opening team time trial in 2009, HTC-Highroad's victory is the second time in three years that they have taken the first stage of Italy's premier cycling event.

Complete results from stage 1 of the 2011 Giro d'Italia.