Contador loses almost a minute on Vuelta’s opening weekend

Vuelta a España stages 1-2 | August 20-21 | Spain

f Alberto Contador was in search of comfort after losing significant time during the Vuelta’s opening team time trial, he could have glanced at the race’s recent history. The final Grand Tour of the year has started 11 of its past 15 editions with a team test against the clock. In that time never has a rider whose team has won the opening time trial gone on to win the overall prize.

Contador was the biggest loser of the main favourites at the end of the opening stage of the 71st Vuelta. With just 27.8km of the 3,315km route ticked off, many people’s pre-race favourite was already 52 seconds down on three of his biggest rivals: Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde. Team Sky and Movistar topped the classification, separated by only 0.4 seconds.

Contador will know that with three weeks of virtually non-stop climbing to come, all is far from lost. “Starting the Vuelta with a 50-second deficit [sic] on your main rivals is difficult,” he reflected. “But I’m satisfied with how we raced. It will be a long Vuelta.”

For Sky the result meant they took the race lead earlier than perhaps they had expected, with Peter Kennaugh slipping on the jersey of a Grand Tour leader for the first time. On Saturday Sky and Movistar rode strongly over the final kilometres, overhauling Orica and BMC, who had both gone quicker over the early part of the course.

With stage two bringing a bunch gallop, Michał Kwiatkowski took the jersey from his Sky team-mate, having placed higher in the final sprint. Afterwards he was quick to clarify his team’s aim. “We came here with one goal for this Vuelta a España,” he said. “Chris Froome.”

Having taken the jersey so early and with so many tough stages on the decidedly lumpy horizon, the question is: will Sky choose to defend the jersey or will they be content to let it out on loan? With Quintana and Valverde breathing down Froome’s neck and Contador smarting from his poor start, the opening weekend of the Vuelta laid the foundations for a fascinating race.