Froome just glad to be back after Roglic wins Vuelta’s opening stage

Primoz Roglic won the opening stage of the Vuelta a Espana as Chris Froome dropped out of contention.

Froome, riding his final race for the Ineos Grenadiers, was unsure of his form coming into the Vuelta but got swift confirmation he was not in shape to contend for an eighth Grand Tour title as he was distanced on the first serious ramps of this 18-day race.

The 35-year-old lost the wheels late on the 173km stage from Irun to the Alto de Arrate above Eibar, as the full impact of the career-threatening crash he suffered 16 months ago was evident again.

Ironically, it was an injection of pace from Froome’s own team – working for Richard Carapaz – that did for the two-time Vuelta winner as he dropped out of the back of the peloton on the climb of the Alto de Elgeta, 18km from home

Froome said he will now ride in support of Carapaz, who took second on the stage, adding: “I’m really, really happy to be racing a Grand Tour again after two years of not doing any and will try to do as much for the team as I can.”

The day belonged to Roglic, the defending champion desperate to make up for dismay at the Tour de France, where he lost the yellow jersey to fellow Slovenian Tadej

Poga ca r on penultimate day.

This mountainous stage was an unusually brutal way to open a Grand Tour, but it had been intended as stage four following a planned start in Utrecht which fell victim to the pandemic.

So, instead it was straight on to the climbs, causing major splits amongst the contenders for red. An attack from Roglic’s Jumbo-Visma team- mate Sepp Kuss inside the final five kilometres made a decisive split, with the likes of Carapaz, Dan Martin and Hugh Carthy following.

After they crested the climb EF Education First’s Carthy struck out for glory on the short descent to the finish but he couldn’t get clear and it was Roglic who made the winning move as they passed under the flamme rouge.

Meanwhile, Jan Tratnik won stage 16 of the Giro d’Italia from a breakaway as Joao Almeida used a late attack to add a couple of seconds to his lead in the pink jersey.

With gradients of 20% inside the fi n a l two kilometres, Almeida rode away from W i lco Kelderman to take his overall lead to 17 seconds.

That all happened 13 minutes after Tratnik beat Ben O’Connor up the final climb to secure his first Grand Tour stage win. the

Primoz Roglic celebrates his success on the first stage.