Masters against the clock, boasting one of the finest sprint armouries in the WorldTour peloton, home to one of the finest Classics riders of this generation and now harnessing the talents of two of the WorldTour’s most promising GC talents – it is with good reason that we refer to Omega Pharma-Quickstep as a ‘super team’.

Their season to date has been a little inconsistent, with their sprint train still a work in progress, but on top form they are simply unstoppable, and nowhere more so than in the team time trial, where they have twice been crowned world champions, and in consecutive years.

Omega Pharma-Quickstep’s ability against the clock is almost unrivalled. Orica-GreenEDGE have pushed them close – and indeed beaten them at the Tour de France – but with the likes of world champion Tony Martin pulling hard at the front, they are simply unrivalled on their day. The team put in a lot of work on their time-trialling, with long sessions working on optimum position and such like. On their first competitive outing of this season, it appears to have been time well spent.