A Team Sky side including Chris Froome took bronze in the team trial on the first day of competition at the UCI Road World Championships in Bergen.
Team Sunweb won both the men's and women's races, with Sky trailing them and BMC Racing in the men's.
Froome was joined by the likes of Geraint Thomas and Owain Doull but it was not to be, with the latter pair dropping off leaving Froome, Vasil Kiryienka, Michal Kwiatkowski and Gianni Moscon to battle manfully.
"Like we said from the start it was never going to be easy," team director Brett Lancaster told Sky's official website. "Teams have always stepped up a lot in this event.
"The guys did their best effort and at the first split they were up by a second. We waited a bit on the climb as we knew ideally we needed five guys for the end, but the guys did a super job to bring it home.
"Third is a bit of a consolation prize. Sunweb are a really well-drilled team and hat's off to BMC who were great. It's the first time Quick-Step have been out of the medals since the race began so it just shows how every team has stepped up."
Froome will go again in the individual time trial on Wednesday, a race for which he is the 7/2 second favourite with Sky Bet.
Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, third in 2014 when Bradley Wiggins struck gold, is the odds-on favourite at 4/7.
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