And they are off
Summary of the opening stages of this year's Vuelta a España
LA VUELTA a España got underway last Saturday with a team time trial in Torrevieja.
The spectacle and roadshow that accompanied the opening stage had the town abuzz for days beforehand.
The stage itself saw the 22 teams knocking off the first 13 kilometres of what is a 3,272km jaunt around the country.
For some it was a good day’s work, but for others either fortune or early tour cobwebs meant it was better forgotten.
On the day itself, thousands of people flocked to the town to get a look at some of the world’s cycling elite.
Astana took the stage with a time of 14.51, a mere two seconds faster than DeceuninckQuick-Step and five quicker than Team Sunweb.
This enabled Astana’s Miguel Angel Lopez to be the first red jersey wearer of the 2019 race.
Stage favourites Deceuninck-Quick-Step felt that they could have been the victors on the day if they were not forced to take their foot of the gas in order to avoid colliding with a stationary Team Jumbo-Visma team car that was tweaking a rider’s bike following a crash that saw the whole team hitting the deck after losing traction on a stretch of the course that had become wet due to what was said to be a broken hosepipe.
Prior to that, UAE Team Emirates had also had trouble with a mass crash at the same place.
Racers that were affected by the incidents included Fabio Aru, Philippe Gilbert and Team Jumbo-Visma’s Primos Roglic, who is expected to be a contender for the overall general classification (GC).
Stage 2 was very much a different kettle of fish with the peloton taking on the first categorised climbs of the tour.
Despite being category 2 and 3 ascents they were still enough to cause some splits in the field and give clear indications of who is hot and who is not.
Nairo Quintana attacked after the final climb of the day at Cumbre del Sol and managed to make it stick in order to gain a much-welcomed stage win on his final grand tour with Movistar.
Although Quintana was first over the line, second placed Nico Roche (Team Sunweb) was higher up the GC after the team time trial and with his bonus seconds on the stage moved into the red jersey taking a two second lead over Quintana into stage 3.
The lumpy third stage from Ibi into Alicante city turned out, as expected, to be a sprinters’ delight with Bora-Hansgrohe’s Sam Bennett taking the first Vuelta stage win of his career.
The Irishman drew clear in the final straight to put daylight between him and Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) and Luka Mezgec (MitcheltonScott).
Overall Nico Roche maintained his overall lead in the general classification.
La Vuelta’s journey through the Valencia region continued on stage 4 with a flat 175.5km stage from Cullera to El Puig. The day had been earmarked as a second consecutive sprinters’ day and that is just what it turned out to be.
A bunch sprint saw the young Dutchman, Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) denying the previous day’s stage winner, Sam Bennett back-to-back wins by keeping his nerve and holding off a late surge by the Irishman.
The GC situation remained the same, meaning Nico Roche would be in red for a further day.
The bad news for the stage was the abandonment of Steven Kruijswijk (JumboVisma), who was still feeling the effects of the team time trial crash on the opening day.
The Stage 5, 171km ride from L’Eliana to the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre provided the climbers with the first real chance to show their mettle. Although not full of challenging ascents, it was lumpy and featured a first ascent of the category 1 climb to the finish line.
As was expected, the sharp end of the stage provided the opportunity for attacks and brave forays that would shuffle up the general classification and highlight who was in form.
The stage was ultimately won by the Burgos-BH rider Angel Madrazo. Despite looking to be on his knees further down the hill, he managed to put space between himself and his fellow breakaway riders, Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH) and José Herrada (Cofidis) in the final kilometre.
Further down the climb, with 3km remaining, the stage 1 red jersey wearer, Miguel Angel Lopez made a move on the group of favourites and broke clear to claim fourth place on the day – 47 seconds behind Madrazo – and more importantly reclaim first place on the GC.
Other favourites, Primoz Roglic and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) managed to limit their losses to López to just 12 seconds, whilst Nairo Quintana relinquished his second place overall by crossing the line 1.41 behind the winner.
Despite looking strong earlier in the week, Quintana once again showed signs of weakness in a grand tour and Roglic pounced on this to jump into second at 14 seconds, leaving the Colombian third at 23 seconds.
Without his team’s crash on the opening day’s team time trial, the question is, would Roglic now be in red?
There is still a long way to go, and plenty of time for the thrills and spills that make La Vuelta so exciting to watch unfold.