Nicolas Roche is amongst a number of cyclists who have expressed concern about the course to be used during the opening stage of the Vuelta a Espana which starts on Saturday.
The stage is a team time-trial from Puerto Banus to Marbella over a distance of 7.4 kilometres. The organisers have described the stage as “a short, very technical, TTT that will make very little difference to the general classification.”
They also state that “The seafront promenade is narrow, so the public will be very close to the race.”
However, as the teams arrive in the South of Spain and recce the course, a number of riders have taken to Twitter to express their concerns about the course.
Race favourite Chris Froome (Team Sky) was one of the first to post photos on Twitter of the course, whereby it can be seen that the riders will have to negotiate a section of wooden decking and lots of sand.
Rory Sutherland (Movistar) posted a number of photos from the course which show a surface covered in sand which looks extremely narrow, with the Australian asking the question “Is the @UCI_cycling serious that this is acceptable? Union???”
Froome’s team mate, Nicolas Roche, also tweeted a photo of the sandy surface with the comment “Vuelta ttt!!!! Are you joking????
