Danish cycling team CSC defended its title at the Eindhoven team time trial in the Netherlands on Sunday.

CSC clocked a time of 53 minutes and 36 seconds to win the 48.6km ProTour race, just one second ahead of surprise podium finishers Team Tinkoff. Milram finished third at 13 seconds.

American Bobby Julich was delighted with the team's ride.

"We're the best in the world for the second straight year, and I think we deserve it," said Julich, one of the main protagonists of the eight-man group, which included David Zabriskie, Christian Vande Velde, Michael Blaudzun, Matthew Goss, Marcus Ljungqvist, Luke Robert and Nicki Sorensen.

Discovery Channel, meanwhile, had a disastrous finish to its race. Tomas Vaitkus and Steve Cummings both crashed in the final kilometer to leave the American outfit crucially short while they were leading the race against the clock.

Their misfortune left the CSC team with wry smiles, and Julich noted: "In the team time trial it's not just power that counts. I think we were very well organized, and we were relaying each other perfectly - even on the bends where the rain broke up our rhythm."