Australian cycling team GreenEDGE has wasted no time in making an impact in Europe.

Just 24 hours after Simon Gerrans narrowly missed out on winning a stage of the Paris-Nice, GreenEDGE dominated the team time trial in the opening stage of the week-long Tirreno-Adriatico.

Matt Goss led the team over the finish line for its first win on the continent, the team covering the 16.9km course to Donoratico in 18 minutes and 41 seconds, some 17s faster than RadioShack-Nissan Trek and Garmin-Barracuda.

Goss said GreenEDGE’s win in the first team time trial it entered was incredible.

“Today was an absolute dream start,” Goss said.

“It was an amazing team effort. We did everything right from start to finish.

“The team specifically prepared for this stage, and this definitely paid off.”

It was a far less impressive outing for defending champion Cadel Evans, with the BMC unit finishing 17th and some 58 seconds off the pace.

In its first season, GreenEDGE’s focus is on winning stages and one-day classics in Europe before the longer-term goal of developing riders to take out overall honours in the grand tours.

The performances this week have shown the fledgling outfit is comfortably ahead of schedule.

GreenEDGE’s sports director Matt White said the result in Italy was “huge”.

“It was obviously always going to be a big moment for us to take that first win in Europe, and this is an important race,” White said.

“To beat the best teams in the world is a big feat.

“To win here is huge. It shows we have a well-rounded team.”

Riders often use the race as a warm-up for this month’s Milan-San Remo, the season’s first single-day classic, which was won by Goss last year.

“We were unlucky yesterday not to win with Simon (Gerrans) in Paris-Nice,” White said.

“To nearly nail a win in the two biggest stage races of the spring in 24 hours is huge. This is a very proud moment.”

Stage 2 of the Tirreno-Adriatico on Thursday is a 230km leg from San Vincenzo to Indicatore.