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Vuelta a Espana: Stage 1 preview

Stage 1 of la Vuelta a Espana is a team time trial, where Orica-Bike Exchange have a good chance at taking the win. (Image: Sky).
Roar Guru
21st August, 2015
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The third and final Grand Tour of the year, la Vuelta a Espana, starts as the 2015 Tour de France did, with a test against the clock. Today’s stage though, 7.4 kilometres between Puerto Banús and Marbella, is a team time trial, and one of the shortest in memory.

Past team time trials past have been a good indicator as to who the strongest teams were, but due to this stage being so short time gaps should be extremely close, and no team will be able to truly dominate.

No general classification riders should lose much time today.

While the course is short in length, there are still a few obstacles, the main two being that the course is quite technical, and the riders will be travelling along the Marbella seafront promenade, meaning the wind may play a factor.

Troublingly, riders have reported that sand is covering four kilometres of the circuit. If this is the case, and it cannot be cleared, the stage must be neutralised – a ridiculous way to start a Grand Tour, but hey, this is cycling we are talking about.

If the race goes ahead, a few teams will be gunning for the stage victory.

Orica-GreenEDGE are one of the best at opening day team time trial wins, as seen by their past two years of success at the Giro d’Italia. However, they have not won a team time trial at the Vuelta in their short history, so they will be looking to add this achievement to their long list of fabulous results, particularly after a relatively poor Tour de France. A win would also serves as a strong springboard for young Colombian Esteban Chaves, who is eyeing a potential top 10 general classification result.

With the team time trial being so short, the explosive riders at Orica’s disposal should see them right up there at the end of the day’s proceedings.

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Another team that will challenge is Etixx-Quickstep. The former team time trial world champions bring a solid squad to this year’s race, but no real sprint or mountain option.

While there are a number of solid riders in all areas, only Niki Terpstra really stands out looking at the team’s startlist. However, with previous good performances in team time trials, and other strong classics riders including Iljo Keisse, Pieter Serry and Nikolas Maes in the squad, they should be right up there today.

The third and final team considered favourites are the current team time trial world champions, BMC.

After withdrawing from the Tour de France late on due to illness, Tejay van Garderen will be looking to put in a solid performance over the next three weeks. Having been a part of the team time trial success on Stage 9 of the Tour, he will be confident of more success in this discipline.

With strong riders like Marcus Burghardt, Peter Velits and Amael Moinard, they are the strongest team for the stage.

Other teams to look out for include the GC-hunting trio of Sky, Movistar and Astana.

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