Star signing Remco Evenepoel made a winning start to his time at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe as the German team narrowly pipped Movistar to victory at the Trofeo Ses Salines team time trial on Thursday by four seconds.
Benchmarks were set by the likes of Unibet Rose Rockets, Tudor Pro Cycling and Jayco-AlUla on Thursday, but it was the Spanish team who really impressed with a strong team of time trial specialists, beating the Australian team by 13 seconds.
However, despite appearing to fade in the final kilometres of their effort, the German team – led by the world and Olympic time trial champion Evenepoel – had done enough to set a new best time of 23:55 at an average speed of 59.5kph with only one team remaining.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG battled on over the 23.8km course, but they were already 12 seconds down on Red Bull at the halfway point. Then as the final run into Colònia de Sant Jordi arrived, the clock went red, confirming victory for Evenepoel and Co.
"I felt pretty good, it was not a hard course in terms of the elevation, but a TTT is always pretty tough. I think we had a structured plan and it turned out well, so we have to be happy," said Evenepoel at the finish.
"It's pretty nice to start off the season with a win, and also with the new teammates, it's good for morale. We just went as fast as possible, and winning is winning, so I think we did it perfectly.
"Every parcours is different, so it's hard to say what we could improve or not [for the Tour de France], but I think what we did today was close to perfection for this TTT. Everybody did what they could, what they had to do, and today was close to perfect, so way to go for the Tour."
For Movistar, it was agonising watching the World Champion lead his team to a narrow win ahead of them, but all they could do was accept the superiority and admit that there wasn't much more they could have tried in terms of pacing.
"I mean, it hurts so much, to be honest. I don't know, I thought we had it," said Movistar's Iván Romeo at the finish to Eurosport. "When you are competing against one of the best teams in the world, with the world champion and probably the best time triallist ever, it's never easy, you know.
"This one hurts. I was watching the finish and counting down the seconds. It sucks, honestly, but that's cycling.
"We missed some watts, that's easy, if you lose in cycling, you always miss some watts. But no, I think they were just better to be honest. We did a crazy pacing, one second ahead of Jayco at the intermediate, then we were 15 seconds ahead at the finish line, so I think we paced it well, but they did it better. So well done, and we'll try do better next time."
How it unfolded
A key Tour de France testing ground for several of the big teams, the strong field battled it out over 23.8km in southern Mallorca, albeit with the older-style timing format of the fourth rider across the line stopping the clock and a flatter course than that which will decide the first yellow jersey in Barcelona.
It was the German Continental team, REMBE-rad-net, who rolled down the start ramp first, and heading out west to Colònia de Sant Jordi, they set a time of 26:01. However, they were soon well knocked off the top spot by ProTeam, Flanders Baloise, showing off some Belgian power with a time of 25:36.
The top teams started to come thick and fast, though, andUnibet Rose Rockets stormed into a massive lead, smashing the Belgian team's time by almost a minute with a 24:41.
This was enough to hold off the likes of TotalEnergies and Equipo Kern Pharma. Come the intermediate time check, though, Unibet's time was being threatened by Tudor Pro Cycling by eight seconds and then Jayco AlUla by 10.
Led by time trial expert Stefan Küng – riding a new BMC TT bike, Tudor took another 27 seconds out of the previous best set by Unibet Rose Rockets and set a new benchmark of 24:14.
Jayco led Tudor by only two seconds at the halfway mark, and by the time they arrived at the finish with the four required riders, they had held that lead at exactly two seconds to snatch away the Swiss team's lead.
Evenepoel led his new Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammates off the start ramp as the second last starter with all eyes on his season debut. By the time they reached the intermediate time check, it wasn't perfect news, with a two-second deficit still to make up on Jayco AlUla and Movistar, and with it all to play for in the second half.
The Spanish team were the surprise package in Mallorca, with a blistering second half from their five remaining riders placing them into the lead ahead of Jayco, destroying the Australian team's top time by 13 seconds.
Only Red Bull remained really in touching distance, after UAE Team Emirates-XRG went through the time check a long way back, 14 seconds down, but the German squad appeared to be tiring, even with Evenepoel to drive their remaining four riders along.
The clock at the finish revealed a different reality, though, as Evenepoel led his new team home with just enough time to beat Movistar by four seconds. It was all smiles for the German outfit at the line, with UAE not threatening their lead and confirming victory at the first attempt of 2026 for Evenepoel.
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