THE HAGUE, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Belgian cycling team Omega Pharma-Quick Step rode to victory in the men's team time trial at the road World Championships in Limburg, the Netherlands on Sunday.

The team, consisting of Tom Boonen of Belgium, Sylvain Chavanel of France, Tony Martin of Germany, Peter Velits of Slovakia, Kristof Vandewalle of Belgium and Niki Terpstra of Netherlands, set the fastest time of 1 hour, 3 minutes and 17 seconds on the track of 53.2 kilometers from Sittard to Valkenburg, with the final climb of the Cauberg. They were the fastest at every time check.

American outfit BMC was only three seconds behind and had to settle for silver, while Orica-GreenEdge of Australia finished third. Italian side Liquigas-Cannondale became fourth and Dutch team Rabobank ended fifth.

For the first time in history commercial teams rode the team time trial at the worlds. Earlier on Sunday Specialized-lululemon grabbed the victory in the inaugural elite women's team time trial.

The team trials are the official start of the World Championships cycling. The event will end with the elite men road race on Sunday September 23.