 Landis takes the leader's jersey after his team's efforts |
The US Postal team stormed to a convincing victory on the opening stage of the Tour of Spain despite being without Lance Armstrong. Armstrong opted not to compete in the event but, despite that, his team won the team time trial by 31 seconds.
American rider Floyd Landis crossed the line first of his team-mates to take the leader's gold jersey.
T-Mobile snatched second in the opening stage, while Illes Balears-Banesto were third.
Landis said afterwards: "The decision that I would cross the line in first place was taken in the last 500 metres by my directeur sportif Johan Bruyneel, and I wasn't arguing."
Defending champion Roberto Heras's Liberty Seguros team struggled to eighth place after finishing with just six of their nine riders together.
He is now one minute and 28 seconds off the pace.
Among the other race favourites, Alejandro Valverde and his Kelme team are 58s off the pace, while Tyler Hamilton is a further three seconds adrift.
Stage one result
1 US Postal 30 minutes, 45 seconds
2 T-Mobile +31s
3 Illes Balears-Banesto +56s
4 Comunitat Valenciana-Kelme +58s
5 Phonak +1:01
6 CSC +1:24
7 Fassa Bortolo +1:25
8 Liberty Seguros +1:28
9 Saeco +1:38
10 Relax-Bodysol +1:41
MMIX
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 