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BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Canadian Svein Tuft powered Orica Green-Edge to victory in the team time trial in Belfast in the opening stage of the Giro dItalia on Friday, taking the overall leaders pink jersey on his 37th birthday. Orica, which was the overwhelming stage favourite, clocked a time of 24 minutes, 42 seconds along the 21.7-kilometre course, which was lined by more than 140,000 fans. The Australian team benefited from starting second and avoiding most of the rain that fell later. "What an amazing day, I never in my life would have imagined something like this," said Tuft, a native of Langley, B.C. "Im so proud of my team and I just cant thank them enough for that. They gave me the gift, it was really a birthday present. This team is really selfless that way. I feel really fortunate to be given that gift on my birthday." Omega Pharma-QuickStep finished second, five seconds behind Orica, beating third-place BMC by just two seconds. Cadel Evans looked strong for BMC and is one of the favourites after last years third-place finish. With defending champion Vincenzo Nibali not competing, Tour de France runner-up Nairo Quintana is another of the race favourites and his Movistar team finished eighth, 55 seconds behind Orica. One of his rivals, Joaquim Rodriguez, had a poor start as his Katusha team struggled throughout and only finished 19th. Rodriguez is 1 minute, 33 seconds behind Tuft and 38 seconds behind Quintana. While it has become a tradition for the first Giro stage to be held outside Italy, this is the first time that the Grande Partenza — or the Big Start — took place outside mainland Europe. Despite the wind and rain, it was a festive atmosphere in the Northern Irish city, with large crowds lining the route and cheering the riders on. However, Irish rider Dan Martin crashed after just 15 minutes, leaving him with a suspected broken collarbone. Martin caused the crash when he caught his wheel on a drain cover and went down strongly on his right arm, bringing down several of his Garmin-Sharp teammates. The four cyclists who were able to continue had to wait for teammate Fabian Wegmann — who had been dropped early on — to catch up with them, as rules stipulate a team has to finish with at least five riders for its time to count. Garmin eventually finished last, 3:26 behind Orica. That means Ryder Hesjedals chances of repeating his 2012 Giro success are all but over. "Obviously there was a crash, and there was only four of us that stayed ahead," said Victoria native Hesjedal. "It was right before a corner and you hear something had happened, we were already through the corner, looked back and there was nobody there. "Obviously it was pretty scary because you dont know what the hell is going on. I dont know what happened, it was basically a nightmare." Belfast is also the start and finish point for Saturdays 218-kilometre leg, which takes in picturesque rock formation, the Giants Causeway along its coastal route. The Giro ends in Trieste on June 1. Cheap Dodgers Jerseys Authentic . Therrien would not confirm his lineup for the game, but he did have the same line combinations practicing together for the third straight day which is usually a pretty good indication of what the lineup will be. Cheap Mike Piazza Jersey . LA (SportsNetwork. http://www.cheapdodgersjerseys.com/. - Whether its because of her improved play or the reason for it, Michelle Wie appears as comfortable on and off the golf course as at any time in her career. Cheap Kirk Gibson Jersey . -- Among the 31 players at the Montreal Canadiens rookie camp, none feels closer to cracking the NHL roster than right winger Aaron Palushaj. Cheap Los Angeles Dodgers Jerseys .Then came December.Three straight losses, including a crushing 27-24 defeat to Washington (4-11) on Saturday, has the Eagles (9-6) on the brink of playoff elimination.LONDON - Novak Djokovic capped off a phenomenal autumn by defending his ATP World Tour Finals title with an impressive 6-3, 6-4 win over Rafael Nadal in a duel between the two dominant players of the season on Monday night. Theres no doubt Djokovic is the man to beat on indoor hard courts. And just for the record, his 22 consecutive wins to finish 2013 matched top-ranked Nadals best stretch of the year. Djokovics winning run started after a U.S. Open final defeat to Nadal, and during a span when the Spaniad replaced him atop the rankings. "The most positive thing that I can take from those 2 1/2 is the fact that I managed to regroup after a few big losses against Nadal, especially in Roland Garros, U.S. Open final and Wimbledon final," said Djokovic, who became the seventh player to win the elite season-ending tournament at least three times. His victory in London denied Nadal the only big trophy missing from his glittering CV. Having produced one of the most memorable comebacks in tennis, Nadal lost in a deciding match for the second time at the tour finals and missed the chance to join Andre Agassi as the only players to have won all four Grand Slams, Olympic gold, the Davis Cup and the year-end tournament. "Its not going to change my career, winning or losing today," Nadal said. "I am not very disappointed. I know that I was not the favourite for the match, even if I tried with the right attitude, in my opinion, fighting for every moment, trying to be positive in every moment, even if the match was not going the way that I would like." Mondays defeat was a strong warning to Nadal, who overhauled Djokovic for the No. 1 ranking last month, that his Serbian rival will be ready to extend his form into next years Australian Open, where he is the three-time defending champion. Djokovic has now beaten Nadal 10 times in 19 finals and is unbeaten since losing at the U.S. Open in September. "After the US Open final, of course, I needed to take things slowly and see and analyze what I did wrong, especially in the matches against him, to understand what I need to do in order to win against him," Djokovic said. "I think the results are showing that we had a great improvement in the last 2 1/2 months." Djokovic returned superbly from the start to move his Spanish rival around the court and prevent him from dictating the points. Nadal, playing on his less favourite surface, hit only nine winners and was broken three times. "If I can ssay about one thing that makes the difference in todays match was the serve — I didnt serve well, he served well," Nadal said.dddddddddddd"So in this kind of court, first shot is very important, and he did that first shot much better than me." Nadal return to the No. 1 ranking came on the back of a stunning comeback from a career-threatening knee injury. Since returning in February, the Spaniard has won 75 matches —losing only 7 —to win 10 titles including the French Open, the U.S. Open and five Masters 1000 events. But Djokovic proved again that he still has the upper hand on hard courts by extending his head-to-head winning record to 13-7 on that surface against Nadal. "Year-end No. 1 is deservedly in Nadals hands because he had two Grand Slam wins, the best season out of all players, the most titles," Djokovic said. "I think thats no doubt, cannot question that. I tried to put aside the calculations and the rankings after U.S. Open and just tried to focus on one tournament at a time, one day at a time. That kind of attitude has helped me to get to where I am at this moment." Djokovic made an impressive start, hitting powerful groundstrokes to keep Nadal well behind his baseline while limiting his own mistakes. Returning well, the Serb made the most of two of Nadals backhand errors to break in the second game. He had another chance in the fourth game after Nadal double-faulted, but was unable to convert. Nadal got into the match from that point. He put Djokovic under pressure with his huge forehands in the next game and two unforced errors from the Serb allowed him to break back and then level at 3-3. But Nadal faltered in his next service game as he served a double-fault at 30-30. After a stunning exchange, Djokovic broke for 5-3 following a series of volleys at the net. Standing in the middle of the court, the Serb opened his arms and screamed as the crowd erupted in cheers. Djokovic sealed the first set with an ace. Appearing supremely confident, Djokovic raised his game further in the second set, pinpointing his shots on the lines to make life more difficult for Nadal after breaking in the third game of the second set. The resilient Spaniard saved two match points and kept encouraging himself until the end, but a final forehand too long gave Djokovic the title. Djokovic will now focus on the Davis Cup final later this week in Belgrade, where he will lead Serbia against defending champion Czech Republic. ' ' '