Team Sky took a narrow win in the opening stage of the Vuelta a España yesterday, when they won the 27.8-kilometre team time-trial from Balneario Laias to Parque Náutico de Castrelo de Miño finishing ahead of Movistar by half a second with ORICA-BikeExchange finishing in third six seconds down.
Peter Kennaugh was first across the line for Team Sky meaning that the 27 year-old will wear the leader’s red jersey for today’s second stage of the race. The British team finished with five riders including Chris Froome with the Tour de France winner having to dig deep to hang on at the end.
“I’m over the moon to be in the jersey but it was definitely not planned,” Kennaugh said afterwards. “Yesterday I was just another rider at the Vuelta and now I’ve just been thrown into the red jersey. It’s pretty surreal at the minute.”
“Going into the stage I’d have been happy if we’d finished within touching distance of first place. In the team everyone is coming from different races and objectives in the season – guys coming from Rio for instance and me coming back from injury. I think starting off hard (was key). Sometimes we’re a bit cautious and riders want to start off easier – but at the end of the day a team time trial is not supposed to be easy.”
Movistar meanwhile finished with six riders including Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde meaning that the duo did not lose out any time on Chris Froome.
Alberto Contador’s Tinkoff struggled in the test and finished 52″ down, meaning the three-time winner of the Vuelta already has a big chunk of time to claw back on the other race favourites.
The race continues today with a 160.8 kilometre stage from Ourense to Baiona.
I guess they don’t do team podiums then (podia?)