Defending champion Bradley Wiggins declared himself pleased with his ride after finishing second in the Criterium du Dauphine prologue.
The Briton, gearing up for a podium bid in the Tour de France this summer, finished the 5.7-kilometres course in six minutes 39 seconds in wet conditions.
Australia's Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEDGE) was the quickest by a second to get the first yellow jersey of the race.
Ukraine's Andriy Grivko (Astana) was third, two seconds behind Wiggins.
Tour de France champion Cadel Evans was ninth, five seconds adrift of Wiggins.
"I'm happy enough to finish second but it's about the whole week. I couldn't have asked for better today," Wiggins said on www.teamsky.com.
"It's always the same with prologues. With riders going three hours apart there's always different conditions. The wind changed massively today.
"Some guys had disadvantages on the course elsewhere at the start and also advantages. That changed and you can't really compare rides. At the end of the day the result is the result and that's just the pick of prologues.
"I'm just pleased it stayed dry really because it's never nice riding a prologue in the rain. It was perfect. I stayed safe and I'm where I want to be at the moment and I'm just trying to enjoy it.
"We're getting close now. It's always nice when the goal is coming up. We've done all the work now and it's been a long process. We're four weeks away from the Tour now so there's not much training to do. It's nice that that's all done and we can race now."
