- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The third Grand Tour on this year’s cycling calendar is upon us as the 2014 Vuelta a Espana kicks off with a 12.6 km team time trial at Jerez de la Frontera. Join The Roar for live coverage from 3:00am (AEST).
This year’s Vuelta is shaping up to be a cracker with plenty of riders that could genuinely call themselves General Classification riders on the start list.
Some of these riders rode the tour and crashed out early such as Alberto Contador (Tinkoff Saxo) and Chris Froome (Team Sky) who were the 2 major favourites going into the Tour de France.
Others rode the whole tour and might be feeling a little bit worse for wear such as Alejandro Valverde (Team Movistar), Peter Sagan (Cannondale), Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) and Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto Bellisol).
Others rode the Giro d’Italia at the start of the year such as Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Cadel Evans (BMC), Fabio Aru (Astana), Wilco Kelderman (Belkin), Thibault Pinot (FDJ) and Nacer Bouhani (FDJ).
It is clear to see by all these top names on the cycling circuit that this year’s Vuelta is going to be the probably the best in recent memory and the leader’s Red Jersey is going to be a hotly contested piece of attire.
It must also be remembered that last year’s winner of the Vuelta, Chris Horner (Lampre), has been withdrawn from the race at the last minute after being found to have low cortisol levels.
Stage 1’s Team Time Trial spans 12.6 km around the Spanish seaside town of Jerez.
The first 3 or 4km are urban and will be the making of some very challenging riding with narrow roads and twists and turns, however after this the roads become wider and the straighter and the gaps after the first couple of kilometres shouldn’t be too large between the team’s as we find out who will wear the first Red Jersey of the 2014 Vuelta a Espana.
All of the general classification riders team’s will be out to limit their losses or even better win the first stage of this year’s Vuelta to set their main riders up into a good position, while teams without a General Classification rider will also be looking for a bit of glory to start the race. It’s hard to nominate a favourite for the Team Time Trial but there are a number of teams who really look like they could have the roster to win stage 1.
The first of these teams is BMC Racing Team. Being led by Cadel Evans, Samuel Sanchez and their mid season transfer of Rohan Dennis they have some very good time trialists and most of the team know how to handle a time trial bike very well.
Omega Pharma Quick-Step, the defending Team Time Trial World Champions certainly have to be considered as a favourite with Tony Martin leading them through the Team Time Trial.
Trek Factory Racing Team also have to be considered as they get lead through the Team Time Trial by Fabian Cancellara.
The other favourites are Team Sky led by Chris Froome as they always manage to put up a good Team Time Trial.
Other teams who are in that next group of finishers will be Tinkoff Saxo, Team Katusha, Orica GreenEDGE and Team Movistar.
The dark horse for mine in Stage 1 is Garmin Sharp. They were ridiculously unlucky at the Vuelta losing a couple of riders on the Team Time Trial; if they don’t suffer the same bad luck this time they could be a real show as they are lead around the 12.6 km course by the likes of Ryder Hesejdal, Daniel Martin, Andrew Talansky, Daniel Martin and Nathan Haas. They truly must be considered for the first Red Jersey after 12.6 km of racing.
Stage 1 of the 2014 Vuelta a Espana should be a cracker whichever way it ends up so if your brave enough to endure the hours join us for our live coverage of Stage 1 from 3:00am (AEST).