August 24/13 22:01 pm - Vuelta a Espana: Stage 1

Posted by Editoress on 08/24/13
 

It was a spectacular start for the 68th Vuelta a España with the sunny seaside atmosphere of Galicia for the inaugural team time trial from Vilanova de Arousa to Sanxenxo. The 197 participants traveled by boat to reach the starting ramp above the sea.

First on the road, wild-card team NetApp-Endura set a time of reference until the arrival of Omega Pharma-Quick Step. The German team outclassing Tour de France TTT winners Orica-GreenEDGE on the 27.4km undulating course was the first surprise of the day. A stiff tailwind was an important factor. It helped the last starters, Astana, to score an impressive average speed of 54.830km/h as they bettered, by ten seconds, the time of RadioShack-Leopard who had bumped Omega Pharma-Quick Step out of the hot seat.

Astana had not won a team time trial in a Grand Tour since the 2009 Tour de France with Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong. Slovenia's Janez Brajkovic, having crossed the line in first position, received the red jersey of the Vuelta seven years after having led the race for two days in the early part of his career with Discovery Channel.

The winner of the 2010 Vuelta Vincenzo Nibali is the main beneficiary of the inaugural stage. He has an advantage of ten seconds over Chris Horner and Robert Kiserlovski (RadioShack-Leopard). Other race favourites are a bit further back: Sergio Henao (Team Sky) at 0.22 , Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) at 0.29, Roman Kreuziger (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) at 0.32, Bauke Mollema and Laurens ten Dam (Belkin) at 0.49, Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) at 0.56, Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) at 0.59, Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel) at 1.14.

Stage 2 will be held from Pontevedra to Baïona (177.7km), with an uphill finish atop the 11km long Alto do Monte de Groba.

Quotes

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana, winners): We've done a great time trial. We've remained united and been strong from start to finish. Jani [Brajkovic] has had a lot of bad luck in a recent past, so it was fair to let him take the red jersey. My condition is very good but the Vuelta is hard and long. There'll be some crucial stages. We'll have to see day by day.”

Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Leopard, 2nd): “I've done my job [by taking three times more turns than his team-mates according to Chris Horner]. I've given everything bearing in mind that our leaders, Chris and Robert [Kiserlovski] stayed up there. I would have been happy to take the red jersey but I'm very satisfied by the performance of my team.”

Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step, 3rd): “We thought we put a winning time together. It was a perfect course for us. We had a few problems finding the good order at the very beginning but the five riders designated for finishing it off stayed together and rode very strongly.”

Press release

Results from the first stage in Spain