Vuelta a Espana 2013 - Stage 1

The Vuelta a Espana kicked off today with a 27.4 kilometre team time trial, and it was a fast and furious start to the third grand tour of the year. Thankfully the weather stayed fine for the riders, as they were traversing a glass starting ramp from a pontoon in the start town of Vilanova de Arousa. There was wind however, and the fast and technical course proved difficult for teams. Many struggled to keep the five riders necessary together to finish and submit their time. 

Team NetApp-Endura were the first team off the ramp, and they put in a surprisingly good performance, setting the best time of 30 minutes and 34 seconds, which stuck until World Team Time Trial champions Omega Pharma-Quickstep beat the time by 19 seconds. Their time can be attributed to world time trial champion Tony Martin's efforts, who went so quickly at times it looked like he would finish alone.

Sky looked at the first intermediate check to be struggling; they were 20 seconds off the fastest time. However, they soon turned it around, finding fifteen seconds to be just five seconds back by the second split, and then finishing second fastest behind Omega Pharma-Quickstep, this certainly puts Sergio Henao in a good position going into the first week.

RadioShack-Leopard looked particularly well drilled under the command of the big Swiss cheese Fabian Cancellara. They not only finished with more than the required quota of five riders, they beat Omega Pharma-Quickstep's time by six seconds, a psychological advantage for Cancellara as he goes on to battle Tony Martin next month at the world championships. 

Movistar and Astana were the last two teams off, and for Movistar it was a good run, but they were hampered coming into the finish by three Katusha riders who had dropped off their line, and there were a few choice words shared when the Movistar line zipped past. Astana on the other hand were easily the best team of the day, they were well drilled, and won the stage by being the only team to break the 30 minute barrier, finishing in 29:59. 

Janez Brajkovic, who came into the Vuelta hunting a contract for next season, is the first wearer of the red jersey of race leader, which will do his team hunting no harm. Tomorrow the Vuelta goes into the place it knows only too well, the mountains, so it is an unknown whether Brajkovic will be able to keep the jersey, or whether it will go to one of Valverde, Rodriguez or even teammate Nibali.