Vandevelde wins first Giro stage

Vandevelde happily celebrated his stage win

Christian Vandevelde took the pink jersey after his Slipstream-Chipotle team won the opening team time trial stage at the Giro d'Italia.

Vandevelde crossed the line a bike's length ahead of five team-mates to become the first American to wear pink since Andy Hampsten in 1988.

Slipstream-Chipotle finished the 23.6km course in 26 minutes 32 seconds - six seconds ahead of CSC.

High Road, led by Briton Bradley Wiggins, finished third.

Scot David Millar was a member of the winning Slipstream team but was dropped before the finish, while Mark Cavendish was involved for High Road.

LPR Brakes, the team of defending champion Danilo Di Luca, was 28 seconds off the lead in sixth place.

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And after the stage, which took place in Palermo, Sicily, Di Luca said: "We got the time we wanted to.

"We knew Slipstream was the team to beat and our goal was to come in at 27 minutes and we did that."

Astana, a team comprising two of the pre-race favourites in Alberto Contador and Andreas Kloden, finished one second behind LPR.

The second stage takes place on Sunday from Cefalu to Agrigento runs for 207km and concludes with a 4km climb.

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Stage One team time trial result:

1. Slipstream 26 minutes 32 seconds
2. CSC at 6sec
3. High Road 7
4. Liquigas 9
5. Barloworld 14
6. LPR 28
7. Astana 29
8. Tinkoff 33
9. Quick Step 42
10. Lampre 45
11. Milram 45
12. Diquigiovanni 51
13. Gerolsteiner 54
14. Caisse d'Epargne 54
15. Saunier Duval 1:02
16. Rabobank 1:04
17. AG2R 1:05
18. Cofidis 1:05
19. CSF 1:15
20. Euskaltel 1:17
21. Silence 1:18
22. Francaise des Jeux 1:26