Australia's Richie Porte has powered to second place on the tough opening prologue of the Criterium du Dauphine, crossing the line six seconds behind winner Alberto Contador.
Contador, who has won the Tour de France twice and is again among the favourites this year, was the fastest against the clock in the brutal 4km ascent to the top of the Mont Chery in the Alps.
The course was a brutal first test of the legs on Sunday, less than a month before the Tour de France begins, with gradients of 15 per cent at the finish, and an average gradient of 9.7 per cent.
Two-time Tour winner Chris Froome (Team Sky) set the early best time of 11'49 and remained in the hot seat until Contador (Tinkoff) arrived to clock 11'36, with Porte (BMC Racing) following six seconds behind.
Contador said: "The climb suited me really well. I didn't expect to win but I can't say it's a surprise to beat Chris Froome."
Porte said the race was a hard prologue, particularly the last 500 metres.
"I haven't raced for the good part of a month and a half and I've flown under the radar so much this year. No one has even mentioned my name.
"I think it's good to be coming into this race with less pressure. There was certainly no hiding today so I think it is good for me in the big picture," Porte said.
"At the end of it I could hardly stand up. It's a nice way to start a race, it's a bit different to a normal stock standard flat prologue."
Porte said he was planning to stay out of trouble for the rest of the stages.
"We've got a strong team and there's no easy day here really. I think it's good that Tinkoff have to defend the jersey now. We'll save it all, as much as we can, for the weekend."
BMC Racing Sports Director Valerio Piva said it was a good performance from Porte but was only the start.
"Richie feels good, he's strong. We don't have the jersey now which is less stress for the team. But of course we're going to try in the next days to get the jersey, and try and have it at the end. The prologue is done and now we look to the stages."
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