Watching from the pits as Team Sky made its debut were Dave Brailsford, the team principal, and head coach Shane Sutton. The two men who are behind Britain's first-ever ProTour team shook hands at the start, and then watched as the race unfolded almost to perfection.

There was only one hitch, when Ben Swift's rear wheel was virtually destroyed in a collision, but the British rider got a quick bike change and re-joined the race to play an important part in setting up the final sprint for Greg Henderson and Chris Sutton to claim a one-two.

"We knew what the game plan was," said Brailsford. "We wanted to take it to the others, and so the guys were patient and waited until the end. They were marshalled superbly, Sean [Yates, the sports director] has done a brilliant job in implementing the plan, and they took up at exactly the right time.

"You've got to have a plan," Brailsford continued. "And then it's up to the lads in the team to execute it - and they did that to perfection. It's a great start."

Winning feeling

Sutton echoed Brailsford. "When they went to the front with two to go my reaction was that they were all doing their job, just as they'd been told to do. I had a feeling about Hendo [Henderson] today - I thought he'd pop up with the win.

"There are some top sprinters here but I thought some of the European guys might struggle with the temperature, whereas Hendo, CJ [Sutton] and Mat [Hayman] have been training and racing here, and they've gelled.

Team spirit

"But there were other guys who played their part - guys like Russell Downing, who came over from England and absolutely buried himself out there. They were all up for it anyway, but now morale is going to be sky high."

Swift, who also spent most of the winter in England - mainly training with Downing - admitted that he "struggled like a dog out there," but that didn't stop him playing his part in the lead-out, being the last man to peel off before Sutton and Henderson finished it off.

"Having the lap out with the mechanical really took it out of me," said Swift. "It was hard to move back up and I was struggling like a dog out there, but I got up the front near the end and we came together really well with about four laps to go. From then it was absolutely perfect. We couldn't have asked for it to go any better."