Chris Froome and Team Sky got the Vuelta a Espana off to the best possible start as the British team won a thrilling opening team time trial in a close battle with key rivals Movistar. Stopping the clock on the lumpy 27.8km course in 30.37.4, they were just 0.2 second faster than the Spaniard and so Peter Kennaugh who was first across the line, is the first leader of the race. Alberto Contador and Tinkoff had a difficult day as they lost 52 seconds in 8th place.

 

We have gathered a few reactions.

 

Pete Kennaugh: Today I am like Chris Froome

Team Sky got their 2016 Vuelta a Espana campaign off to the best possible start with a thrilling victory in the opening team time trial.

 

Powering around the 27.8-kilometre course in a winning time of 30 minutes and 37 seconds, the team pushed hard over the line in Castrelo de Mino to take the win by a margin of less than a second.

 

Pete Kennaugh was first across the stripe, and as a result the Brit becomes the first man to pull on the red leader's jersey in this year's race.

 

Movistar were pushed down to second place by mere fractions, with Orica-BikeExchange rounding out the podium places, six seconds back, amidst a close battle for victory.

 

Chris Froome dug deep to keep the team's five-man group together in the final metres, coming in alongside Kennaugh, Salvatore Puccio, Michal Kwiatkowski and Leopold Konig. David Lopez arrived moments later after pulling off inside the final kilometre, while Christian Knees and Ian Boswell emptied the tank out on course to lay the foundations for a winning effort.

 

The win puts Froome into a strong GC position from the outset, taking time out of all his major rivals in Ourense.

 

”There was no such plan [to cross the line first],” Kennaugh said. “It's so special for me coming back from injury. I'm over the moon. For me, it's like I'm just getting up into my form. I had trained hard for the Ardennes classic and my plan was upset when I crashed and broke my collarbone. Since then I never found my best form. It's a funny old sport. Obviously I've trained very hard in the last two months. I knew I was coming into form, I was putting more pressure on myself. I tried to tackle this race with a little more confidence.

 

”I think sometimes in the past guys in the team were a bit cautious, taking it a little bit easier. But a team time trial is not supposed to be easy. You can't just give ten seconds away in the first five km or you'll never get them back. My first turn was pretty much full gas and I was already in the red. In the past, maybe we were more controlled. You cannot afford to do that.

 

“It's crazy you know. Yesterday I was just another rider at the start of the Vuelta and now I'm just like Chris Froome in the yellow jersey and asked all those questions. I was not expecting to hold a Grand Tour jersey in the near future. It feels amazing. It will probably sink in tomorrow on the start line in the red jersey.

 

”Now it is back to the day job really. You know what cycling is like these days. You have nine GC teams riding at the front for the last 60 km. There is no such thing as a day off. Well' have to keep Froomey out of trouble, get to the front and do what we have to do.

 

”In the first half, Froome might not be as good as everyone else and holding up a little bit. But in the second week you'll see him up there. He's such a phenomenal rider.”

 

Chris Froome: I felt better than expected

"I was really hoping to do a good time today, but I’m actually quite surprised we could win that,” Froome told Cyclingnews "Even though it was very close on Movistar, it’s great to have the time on the other teams.

 

"In the last few days, we had a good look at the course here, it’s quite technical. We thought a lot about how to race each part of today, and it was a big goal in terms of the overall. The time trials and uphill finishes are the most decisive for GC, so this was a stage where we knew we had to be on our top game.”

 

”I was surprised with how the legs felt. I did start off little bit more conservatively doing more shorter turns, then I was able to go a bit longer towards then end, doing some harder pulls.

 

“Pete’s in great form, and it’d be nice for him to hold onto the jersey for as long as possible. But there’s three weeks ahead of us. Tomorrow’s a sprint stage so let’s see how it pans out. We’re going to have to put our heads together and come up with a strategy.

 

“Mentally, it’s put me in a great place. I’m really hoping to ride into this race, and try and stay out of trouble, hopefully I’ll find legs more in the second half."

 

Nairo Quintana: My legs were feeling great

Even shorter than the blink of an eye. The Movistar Team came shorter than ever to repeat their previous success from Pamplona (2012) and Jerez (2014) and claim a victory which would have put Alejandro Valverde, the bib number 1 in the 2016 Vuelta a España, into the first place of the overall classification following the opening, 27.8km TTT from Laias to Castrelo do Miño. Only nineteen hundredths of a second against Sky prevented the Eusebio Unzué-led squad's win, the Blues offering a display of experience and consistency over the roads of Galicia.

 

The lads directed by Chente García Acosta and José Luis Arrieta were trailing BMC and Orica-BikeExchange by 11" after the first intermediate check (9km), a stretch of long, fast turns preceeded by a small uphill from the start ramp. The Blues were even losing more terrain, 13" to the US-registered team, at the second split (18km). However, the Movistar Team saved more energy and numbers for the late part of the TTT, with six riders against many squads' five. Their 30'37"6 across the finish  was only beaten by Sky's 30'37"4, which took Peter Kennaugh into the lead of the race.

 

Nairo Quintana said:

 

"I'm happy with the overall performance by the team, yet a bit sad as we couldn't win despite finishing with the same time as Sky. We took advantage of the big squad we brought here; it was a compact group, not only consisting of specialists, rather than a well-bonded, all-around team, which put on a good effort on the road today. My legs were feeling great today; I just hope they remain the same for the rest of the race."

 

Alejandro Valverde: It’s awful to be so close to the red jersey

Alejandro Valverde said:

 

"We rode really strong and did things right. My feelings were of pure struggle, because that's how you've got to feel in a team time trial - it all builds on agony on such courses. It's awful to be losing by such a short margin and not being able to wear the leader's jersey, but when you leave all on the road, you can't ask yourself for anything else. We're overall happy about how things went for us today."

 

Manager Eusebio Unzue added:

 

"I'm a little disappointed by the result but happy with our race. It's hard, very hard to lose by hundredths of a second. Where did we lose this time? We can look into it for days and never find out. We know that the team is doing well and that's the main thing."

 

Esteban Chaves: I really felt that I have improved my time trialling

ORICA-BikeExchange proved that research does pay off after taking third place on the opening stage team time trial at the Vuelta a Espana today with a strong collective performance that saw Australian Damien Howson lead the team over the line.

 

The finishing times were agonisingly close with Team Sky taking the stage win ahead of Movistar and only six seconds ahead of ORICA-BikeExchange.

 

24-year-old Howson crossed the line first for ORICA-BikeExchange and praised the efforts of his teammates.

 

“It was very close, we crossed the finish line and obviously there were a few teams behind us so we weren’t sure of our result,” said Howson. “We put in a very strong ride and when you give it everything in a flawless ride as we did, you can walk away happy with the performance.

 

“It’s a huge honour for me to lead the team over the line on the opening stage of the Vuelta a Espana and start with a positive result. The team decided on the bus that if it was possible for me to cross the finish line first then that’s way everyone wanted it to pan out.

 

“It’s a wonderful gesture from the guys and I don’t think that they realise how much this means to me, I can't thank them enough.”

 

Esteban Chaves added:

 

”Of course It's an important result. The Australian boys made really good efforts. Two years ago I only did the team time trials as the last guy. And now I can do some riding in the front. It's a very good improvement.  I saw the time, there is no big gap with the other teams so it's a good result. Guys like Svein Tuft and  Sam Bewley pushed very hard in the front. We will see in the next weeks if I improved in the mountains too."

 

Sport director Neil Stephens was very happy with the result and the performance of the team.

 

“The result today is a culmination of a lot of work by the team over the last few days," Stephens said. "The boys have re-coned the route numerous times and all the staff have put in a lot of hours, it was a great team effort.

 

“The boys rode very well indeed and with a high level of intelligence and discipline throughout the time trial and it’s a good feeling for us all when the hard work pays off.

 

“It was also important not to lose any time today and fortunately we start on the front foot and from a good position going into day two.”

 

Tejay van Garderen: We did the perfect race

It was a nail-biting start to the Vuelta a Espana with a 27.8km team time trial testing the legs on the opening day of racing.

 

BMC Racing Team rolled down the start ramp as the fifth-to-last team, chasing the provisional best time set by Etixx QuickStep.

 

Orica BikeExchange clocked the best time at the first intermediate point, which BMC Racing Team matched before going on to set the best time at the second check point by six seconds, with four teams left to come through.

 

BMC Racing Team lost four riders to the technical final part of the course and crossed the line with the required number of five riders to set the second-best provisional time of 30’44”, one second behind Orica BikeExchange.

 

Movistar came home in 30’37” to knock BMC Racing Team to third place provisionally before Team Sky crossed the line just 0.4 seconds ahead of Movistar to take the win and confirm fourth place for BMC Racing Team.

 

Tejay van Garderen said:

 

“I think we did really great as a team. Tactically I think we rode it perfectly and rode really hard. I don’t think anyone had anything left at the end so that’s how you know that you rode a good one. To be beaten by one second [Orica BikeExchange at the time of the interview] and then there’s still some other teams to come in so we’ll see where we end up, but in the end I still think we can be proud of what we did today.

 

“We started uphill so the pacing was really important. Through the technical sections you have to be technically very good on the bike altogether as a team which I think we were. It’s a tricky finish with some bumps and corners and some straight power sections so there was never one second where you could really let up and relax. We rode it perfectly so we don’t have any regrets, we were just some seconds behind.”

 

 

Sports director Valerio Piva added:

 

“Of course when we start the team time trial we have ambition as the reigning UCI World Champion team. We had the ambition to win today. We had the best time at the first and second intermediate checkpoints. Unfortunately, in the 5km we lost Silvan Dillier and Ben Hermans so then with only five riders we lost these six or seven seconds that lost us the victory. We are fighting with the favorite teams and to have four teams within seven seconds shows the level of competition here. We lost today but there have been other team time trials that we have won by only one second. For me today’s result is ok, the team did everything possible and that is racing.”

 

Etixx-QuickStep: This fifth place is not the end of the world

Tenth team to roll down the ramp in Galicia, at the start of the 71st Vuelta a España, Etixx – Quick-Step rode a fast and solid team time trial, which saw the riders set the best time at the two checkpoints, before going into the hot seat at the finish, after becoming the first squad up until that point to cross the line in under 31 minutes. The 27.8-km long course between Balneario de Laias and Parque Nautico de Castrelo de Miño was a lot about finding the right pace and digging dip on the winding and testing roads of northern Spain, which was hosting the start of the race for the second time this decade.

 

After a strong combined effort, Maxime Bouet, Gianluca Brambilla, Yves Lampaert, Gianni Meersman and Niki Terpstra were the five Etixx – Quick-Step men to take the lead in the provisional standings, where they stayed for a good chunk of time, until four teams managed to improve their time. Sky won the TTT, beating Movistar and Orica-Bike-Exchange, while Peter Kennaugh took command of the general classification by four hundredths of a second.

 

Fifth at the finish, just 22 seconds down, was a result which left sport director Rik van Slycke satisfied:

 

"The squad did really well today, had a good race, without any big mistakes. It's just that a few teams turned out to be stronger than us, but considering everything, we can be pretty happy with the result. Maybe we could have come 3-4 seconds better, but it's not the end of the world. Today we showed that we are strong and ready to fight for the next stages."

 

Maxime Bouet added:

 

"We rode a near-perfect TT. We finished with five guys but we nearly blew up in the final descent. It's a very technical descent that can lead to make mistakes. And there is a little bump two kilometers from the finish that hurts a lot. It's just after the descent and if a rider is dropped, it's very hard to close the gap. This hill can make a difference in the standings. The teams who will manage to keep a strong pace in this ascent could make a difference."

 

Jos van Emden and Victor Campenaerts give optimistic Kruijswijk a good start at the Vuelta

Team LottoNL-Jumbo began the Vuelta a Espana with a sixth place in the team time trial today in Ourense. The Dutch team lost 28 seconds on stage winner team Sky, with its rider Pete Kennaugh in the red leader’s jersey. Team leader Steven Kruijswijk finished safely among the first five riders of his team.

 

“We delivered quite a good time trial,” trainer Mathieu Heijboer said. “It was our target to bring Steven Kruijswijk to the finish line safely without losing to much time. This sixth place isn’t bad at all. We only lost a little bit too much time in the final part of the race because we ended up with just five riders quite early. That means you have to play it safe afterwards. We’re relieved because a team time trial is always stressful.

 

“Victor Campenaerts and Jos van Emden were the team’s motors today and Koen Bouwman, who makes his debut in a grand tour, did a terrific job as well. I’m proud of the team.”

 

Jos van Emden was very positive about Campenaerts and Bouwman, as well.

 

“They’re riding their first grand tour,” he added. “They stayed with us until the end and really were a value in this team time trial. They deserve a big compliment. The start of our time trial was a little bit messy, but it started to run smoothly quickly afterwards. I’m satisfied with my own performance, as well. With this team, full of climbers, we did a really good job.”

 

“This was awesome,” Bouwman said. “This is my first grand tour, and to start with a team time trial is special. This is all new for me, but I had a great day and was able to stay with the team until the end. This was fun, I would like to do this more often.”

 

“This was immediately a very important day for me as a time trial specialist,” Campenaerts added. “I wanted to deliver a good job for the team and I felt strong. It was the first time that I did a team time trial on such a high level. The difference is that you do quite short turns, but it’s at a speed of 60 kilometres an hour all the time.”

 

 “We did a good job with the team,” Kruijswijk explained. “I’m satisfied about this. We started this Vuelta strongly. I want to take it a little bit easy in the first week to stay safe. It’s my target to save as much energy as possible before the hardest part of this Vuelta starts.  I'm going to grow into this Tour."

 

“I’m really happy about today,” George Bennett, who finished with the first five riders of Team LottoNL-Jumbo, as well, added. “I’m never nervous about cycling races, but I was today. It went well, though, and I’m happy that I got it done."

 

Trek-Segafredo: This seventh place did much better than expected

The 2016 Vuelta a España opened with a 28.7-kilometer team time trial and Trek-Segafredo exceeded the team's expectations with a seventh place finish, 50 seconds behind stage winner Team Sky.

 

"They really did a great job!" exclaimed director Dirk Demol. "If you see the composition of the teams that are here and to finish in 7th place… It really was better than we were expecting.

 

"With 22 teams we expected to be around 10-12th place, that was reasonable. We have, to be honest, we don't have our strongest team in line here, but I have to say that we did a good job to prepare for the time trial. We were here since Wednesday."

 

Trek-Segafredo pedaled through the first time check in eighth place and gradually picked up speed along the course to claw back to fifth fastest at the 18.2-kilometer mark and raced over the line with the second fastest time provisionally. The faster teams were still to come, but it was an excellent performance from the pinstriped team who eventually placed seventh.

 

"There was an uphill soon after the start, and we decided to start quite slow to not kill anyone, especially since there was a part of almost 10kms with a headwind," explained Demol on the team's tactics.  "We kept nine guys there and then we started to go fast. 

 

"We told the guys that they must do this as a team. You have to forget about yourself and think all the time about the team and just go out and do our best. In the last five kilometers, we lost three riders and finished with six. All the guys were superb; really the team did better than I expected."

 

Alberto Contador: Starting the race with this deficit is difficult

Kicking off the final Grand Tour of the season with a Team Time Trial, the Tinkoff riders worked well over the rolling course, keeping team leader and three-time GC winner, Alberto Contador, safe. As the final team out of the gate, the riders held together well, crossing the line in a time of 31:29 and taking a top ten position.

 

While other teams had struggled to keep their full complement of riders together over the parcours, the guys held it together well and covered two-thirds of the course with the whole team in one piece. Supporting their leader, Alberto Contador, well, the harsh shadows falling on the course made the last 5km difficult with the constant switch from light to dark. After a hard push in the final few corners, the time on the line was 31:29.

 

Taking ninth spot from a field of 22 teams, the team goes into the second day without the pressure of protecting the maillot rojo. Sport Director, Steven De Jongh found the time trial straightforward and was looking ahead to the rest of the race.

 

“It was a difficult one, but there were no surprises from the course. The start was good, but after 10km some riders weren't going to well so they had to sit on. Michael Gogl, Manuele Boaro, Daniele Bennati and Alberto had to do more and I think we lost some time there, but the race is long still and we can look ahead now.“

 

Contador gave his thoughts after the stage:

 

"It is always hard to start with a team time trial after a week of slow training but I feel very well. The team gave its best today. We all raced at 100% of our potential and I don't think we could have done something differently.

 

"Starting the Vuelta with a 50 second deficit on your main rivals is difficult but I'm satisfied with how we raced. It will be a long Vuelta, we have 20 stages ahead of us and we will seize all the opportunities we get.

 

"We will take it day-by-day and see where we can make a difference."

The key factor, De Jongh continued, was that the team’s leader completed the stage without any trouble, and was ready to face the days to come. “Alberto was feeling good which is the most important thing for us and we now look to tomorrow's stage and focus on the race ahead.”

The first road stage gently introduces riders to the Spanish roads with a parcours that takes in one categorised climb on a gently undulating route. At 160.8km, this is one of the shorter road stages but features the third category Alto de Fontefria, cresting exactly halfway through the stage. With a late intermediate sprint and a flat final kilometre, a bunch sprint seems likely.

Stage Result

 

Bora-Argon 18: We showed that we can be dangerous

Bora– ARGON 18 with team capitain José Mendes was the first team off the ramp and opened the 71st Vuelta a España. After a fast start BORA - ARGON 18 was on top of the leader board at the first split for over 30 minutes of racing. The second part, less technical, was perfect to push high gears, before the last part of the course included some uphill sections. In these last kilometres BORA - ARGON 18 lost 3 riders but still finished in 31:34 and occupied the "Hot Seat" for several minutes. In the end this time was good enough for 10th place in the opening TTT.

 

For team leader José Mendes this means a good starting position for his quest in the GC of the Vuelta.
 

“We are really happy about the 10th place in the Team Time Triil. The boys did a great job. A Team Time Trail like this one is really difficult, everyone has to push himself to the limit especially on a course like we had today. But the boys delivered a great performance and juged their speed really well. So the 10th place is a really good result for us,” said Steffen Radochla, sports director  

 

Bartosz Huzarski added:

 

"We"re happy. It was good team work. It was very good to open the Vuelta d'Espana this year We showed the team had prepared well for the race. We are Pro Continental, one of the smallest teams in the race but we showed we can be dangerous. It would a dream to finish in the top 10."

 

Mechanical makes it a difficult Vuelta debut for strong Miguel Angel Lopez.

Astana finished 11th after captain Miguel Angel Lopez had dropped his chain early on.

"A good start,” said Miguel Angel Lopez at the end of the team time trial ”It is a pity with the mechanical problem, but I realized that my condition is good.

 

"The course was fast and the whole team is very strong. We are a good group.” 

 

"The small mechanical accident made us lose almost 30 seconds, but I'm pleased with the performance of the boys. A good sign for the future,” commented sport director Alexander Shefer.

 

Sports director Stefano Zanini added:

 

"We had a little problem with Lopez, his chain snapped after two or three kilometers and we lost a lot of time. Afterwards the team worked well. But we lost nearly 30 seconds. Afterwards the team rode fast, but thats' the way it is"'.  

 

Matthieu Ladagnous: FDJ have really improved in team time trials

FDJ finished 12th. Matthieu Ladagnous  said:

 

"It hurt. Thirty kilometers is long. We're a good team in this discipline. We did the best we could. Since the start of the season, in every time trial we finished in the top ten. The off-season work is paying off. I hope we can do as well today. We enjoyed it today."

 

Katusha: Our young riders did a good jon

Team KATUSHA ended up mid-pack in 14th place behind winners Team Sky.

 

”This was not bad for us. With the team we have here we are not one of the favorites for the race. Our young riders did a good time along the TT, all of them were pulling. We’re not far off from the top 10 if you look at the times, but of course saying top ten sounds better. We are going for breakaways and stage wins, these are our goals. The condition of our riders is good with nice legs, so in the upcoming days we will see what we can do,” said sports directorJose Azevedo. 

 

Team KATUSHA lost 1.17.

 

Tyler Farrar: We tried to protect our climbers

Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka was the 6th team to leave the start ramp this evening and they were chasing the benchmark times set by Bora-Argon 18. At the two intermediate time checks out on course, outher African Team consistently went through with the 3rd best time. At the finish, the boys again stopped the clock with what was the 3rd best time.

 

There were obviously still 16 teams to follow, including all the big favourites for the day. Knowing that the flat, fast course suited the big powerhouse time trial teams, the African Team was still pleased with the performance the boys put in today.

 

In the end, after all teams had finished, Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka had secured 15th place on the stage with a time 1’17” slower than that of Team Sky. With still 20 stages to go, the African Team look forward to animating the race over the coming 3 weeks.

 

Tyler Farrar said:
 

“I think we can be pretty happy with our performance today. We certainly not a specialist team when it comes to the team time trial but our goal was to just stay close to the other teams, not lose too much time for our GC guys and ride smooth. I think we can be really happy with what we did today. 

 

"It went OK. As a team we're not specialists. Some of us have a lot of experience, others not so much. We tried to ride a solid ride and to protect our climbers. I think we can be happy with the race we had."

 

Sports director Alex Sans Vega added:
 

“We did a solid team time trial with some guys showing some good form on the bike. Our days are still to come in this race, so were looking forward to the next stages. ”

 

Caja Rural: This was a difficult course for our climbers

Caja Rural - Seguros RGA completed the stage in 32:13 minutes, which was the sixth best time when the Spanish team crossed the line.
 
On the very fast course around Ourense, the teams with big engines had a clear advantage. However, despite bringing many climbers to the race, Caja Rural - Seguros RGA put up a great fight to finish the day in 18th place.
                                                                                                          
Sports director Eugenio Goikoetxea said: 

 

“This was not a great course for a team like ours with many light climbers. Still, I think we defended ourselves well. It wasn’t a bad a performance. Now, we can focus on tomorrow’s stage, which is the first real stage for us. We will try to make the early breakaway and if it comes down to a sprint, we hope to have Prades in the mix”.
 

Giant-Alpecin: We wanted to save energy for tomorrow

The early evening conditions were perfect as the first teams rolled down the start ramp, with Team Giant-Alpecin following mid-field as they started their Vuelta campaign in the setting sun.  At the first time check at 9.4km Team Giant-Alpecin were 0′ 41” down on the leaders; at the second at 18.2km they had moved up in the ranking but were still down 1′ 10”, before finally they finished in 19th, 1′ 50″ down on the winning team.

 

Coach Luke Roberts said after the stage: “With no great ambitions for the GC in this race, and being that we have our eye on tomorrow’s stage, our goal in the TTT today was to have a smooth, comfortable start and settle into the race. With all riders safely through the stage and some showing their condition is good we are very much looking forward to the first sprint opportunity tomorrow with Nikias [Arndt].”

 

Lampre-Merida climbers last in opening team time trial

LAMPRE-MERIDA started his participation in the Vuelta a Espana by obtaining the 22nd place in the opening time trial, which took place in Ourense. The blue-fuchsia-green team whose members are Arashiro, Cattaneo, Conti, Mario Costa, Durasek, Grmay, Koshevoy, Meintjes and Zurlo completed the course in 32’45”, 2’08” more than the best performance.

 

"Our team has mainly climbers and therefore we were penalized in having to deal with a course with many long straights and only a short section characterized by curves, a course suitable for time trial specialists and pure rouleurs,” explained sports director Simone Pedrazzini. “The guys are good but the time trial has not enhanced their fighting spirit.”