Vuelta Stage 1: Fuglsang in race lead as Leopard Trek wins TTT, problems for Sky

Leopard Trek this afternoon won the team time trial that opened the 66th edition of the Vuelta a Espana in Benidorm, pushed closest by the Liquigas Cannondale squad of defending champion Vincenzo Nibali, who rode today in the red race leader's jersey that now passes to Jakob Fuglsang. Team Sky had issues with what sports director Steve de Jongh would later say was crashes and miscommunication, and finished 42 seconds down on Leopard Trek.

Dutch outfit Skil-Shimano were first off the ramp at 5pm local time, with the late afternoon temperatures on the Costa Blanca still standing in the early 30 degrees Centigrade.

While a breeze coming in from the sea would take some edge off the heat, it would make life difficult for the riders on the section of the 13.5 kilometre course that followed the seafront.

Shortly after the start ramp, the road headed uphill towards the gates of the Terra Mitica theme park, climbing 138 metres over 1.9 kilometres, before heading back down to the start and following the seafront for around 4 kilometres before turning back towards the finish.

Seven of the nine Skil-Shimano riders remained together as they came home in a time of 16 minutes 48 seconds. Perhaps surprisingly, that time wasn’t bettered by Garmin-Cervelo, the next time out on the course, but it was beaten by the third team to start, Quick Step, who went 3 seconds faster.

Astana also went quicker but it was Leopard Trek who set what proved to be the best time of 16:30,Fuglsang crossing first, and it would only be the last team on the course, Liquigas Cannondale, that looked like putting the team including four world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara under any real pressure.

Janez Brajkovic of RadioShack was among the riders hoping to put the disappointment of an injury-marred Tour de France behind him, but the Slovenian encountered some kind of problem as soon as he rolled off the ramp, team mates on the road ahead looking back to see where he was.

The US outfit, well drilled in this discipline, would usually be considered one of the favourites for a team time trial, but Brajkovic’s GC hopes clearly took priority, with the team waiting for the 27-year-old to join them. In ensuring that he lost as little time as possible to his rivals, they lost any chance of taking the stage win, however.

There was no such help given to Lampre-ISD’s Marco Marzano, who could only watch forlornly as his team mates including Michele Scarponi rode off into the distance after he was left at the start needing a rear wheel change.

Among other riders to encounter difficulties today were Tour of Flanders winner Nick Nuyens, who went across a cycle path and came down hard among some roadside shrubbery after his Saxo Bank-SunGard appeared to try and take a corner too quickly.

It was evident that Team Sky had encountered some kind of problem, just three riders from the British outfit riding alongside team leader Bradley Wiggins along the seafront. With the team’s time taken when the fifth man crosses the line, the team had clearly encountered difficulties, although it wasn’t immediately apparent what that might have been. Sports director Steve de Jongh later said that a combination of crashes and miscommunication was to blame. While a fifth rider did get back on at the end, the team lost 42 seconds on Leopard Trek. 

HTC-Highroad posted what would turn out to be the third fastest time, and the final team out on the course was Liquigas-Cannondale, complete with Vincenzo Nibali, wearing the race leader’s red jersey to denote his status as defending champion. The Italian squad was the fastest team at the intermediate checkpoint, going 1 second faster than Leopard Trek, but lost a few precious seconds over the second half of the course.
 

Vuelta Stage 1 Result 
1.  Leopard-Trek            16:30

2.  Liquigas-Cannondale     16:34

3.  HTC-HighRoad            16:39

4.  Astana                  16:40

5.  Movistar Team           16:44

6.  Quick Step              16:45 

7.  Skil-Shimano            16:48

8.  Omega Pharma-Lotto      16:48

9.  Garmin-Cervélo          16:55

10. Katusha Team            16:55

11. BMC                     16:57

12. Euskaltel-Euskadi       16:58

13. Saxo Bank-Sungard       16:58

14. RadioShack              16:59

15. Rabobank                17:00

16. Lampre-ISD              17:02

17. Cofidis                 17:03

18. Vacansoleil-DCM         17:09

19. AG2R-La Mondiale        17:12

20. Sky                     17:12

21. Geox-TMC                17:13

22. Andalucía-Caja Granada  17:33