Ineos's French rider, Dorian Godon, won stage 1 of the Tour of Catalonia on Monday as Belgian Remco Evenepoel came second in a photo finish and Tom Pidcock was third.
The 105th edition of this seven-day tour is packed with stars, with Dane Jonas Vingegaard the favourite to win after his masterclass at Paris-Nice.
The opener was a hilly 172km race that left the coastal resort of Sant Feliu de Guixols, took in Girona, a category 1 climb and then sped back to the Costa Brava coast.
Kiwi second-tier rider Josh Burnett was the last of the breakaway to be caught, 10km from the finish, as the cast of stars jostled to keep up with a high closing pace.
Other contenders such as Joao Almeida of UAE Team Emirates, Evenepoel's Red Bull teammate Florian Lipowitz, Oscar Onley of Ineos, and Lidl trio Giulio Ciccone, Derek Gee and Mattias Skjelmose all came home safely a few seconds off the pace.
Stages four, five and six will be contested in the Pyrenees, while the finale takes in seven circuits of Montjuic in Barcelona, where the Tour de France starts in July.