The first stage and the first red jersey of the Vuelta a España has gone to arguably the deepest and strongest team at the race in UAE Team Emirates, their American puncheur and some-time TT specialist Brandon McNulty scorching along the seafront from Lisbon to Oeiras.
While top favourites Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) had decent rides on the pan-flat parcours, the spotlight was stolen by a resurgent Edoardo Affini (Visma-Lease a Bike) and the overlooked Czech national champion Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), the latter only beaten by one man in the end.
- Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) was super strong among the early starters, but it was new dad Jay Vine who was the first to crack 13 minutes. He’d barely taken a breath, though, let alone made it to the hot seat, before Affini made good on his intermediate time and took 16 seconds out of the Australian’s benchmark.
- GC outsider Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) – whose early season form culminated in third overall at the Tour de Romandie – put a target on his back with a sturdy time 13 seconds off Affini, but the big favourites were still to come.
- The first rider to break through Affini’s intermediate benchmark was top favourite Tarling, but only by a couple of seconds. And with the wind having picked up later in the course as the evening wore on, the European champion had work to do as his Italian rival polished off his post-race pasta in the hotseat. The seconds ticked down for Tarling in the final few hundred metres and even Affini was shocked to see the timer go red as the young Welshman fell short, by just a quarter of a second.
- Czech national champion Vacek took the race by surprise by blasting past his minute man and taking two seconds out of Tarling’s best at the intermediate time check. It was touch and go given how the wind had affected other late starters, but Vacek held firm all the way to the line where he unseated an impressed Affini by a healthy margin of six seconds, nudging his average speed just beyond 57 kph.
- Stefan Küng came close, going through the intermediate check seven seconds down, and just four at the finish, but he would be left empty-handed, not for the first time.
- Former Olympic champion and multiple time trial winner Primož Roglič was expected to post a good time too on his first race back after crashing out of the Tour de France. While he didn’t trouble the leaders’ times, he was – unsurprisingly, let’s be honest – the best of the GC contenders, which is a good sign for his form as he begins his attempt at a fourth career Vuelta title.
- The last two riders to take the course were Brandon McNulty and Wout van Aert. The American came through the time check less than two seconds slower than Vacek, and very much in contention, but Van Aert bested the Czech rider by a second, affording him virtual favourite status to take a comeback win.
- However, at the finish only the US national champ could break Vacek’s stellar benchmark – he was also only the second rider to break 57 kph – with a time two seconds faster, while Van Aert finished third, just three seconds off McNulty’s time.
Stage 1 top 10 (also GC standings)
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Quotes of the day
I really don’t know if I expected to win. I knew if something crazy happened I could, so I kinda guess something crazy happened, but yeah, I was hoping for something good today, but this is really hard to believe for me.”
McNulty said after his stage-winning effort.
Tarling was one of the top favourites in the time trial, his first stage of his first Grand Tour, given its flat and non-technical attributes reminiscent of the European championship course where he earned his first elite continental title. The 20-year-old Welshman set out feeling he had something to prove after a puncture destroyed his medal hopes at the Olympics, but it wasn’t his day.
I feel a bit heavy and a bit lost really. I struggled after the Olympics head-wise and training-wise, and I thought I was on it and confident today, but I got going and sunk a bit.”
Tarling said, visibly gutted.
Wout van Aert, recent Olympic bronze medalist, opted against the double disc wheels in the Vuelta’s opening TT due to the wind, but added that it wasn’t as strong as during the recon. The Belgian had a great start as he set the best intermediate time, but faded at the finish while McNulty did the opposite. However, with just three seconds in it, the red jersey is still in his sights in the coming stages.
Mmm, not really satisfied. I didn’t feel great, just good. But too soon in the TT it started to hurt and it was a long way to the finish … I’m still close so I want to take my chance in the coming days. Everything is still possible.”
Van Aert said as he sat on the pavement shortly after his effort.
Brief analysis:
- UAE Team Emirates brought a fantastically strong team to the Vuelta, sending João Almeida and Adam Yates with joint leadership, with luxury domestiques Jay Vine, Marc Soler and Pavel Sivakov at their disposal, along with the versatile McNulty, Filippo Baroncini and young upstart Isaac Del Toro. McNulty’s stage 1 win gives the team a boost they hardly needed on top of all the hyperbole and expectation, as do the strong performances of their GC leaders. Almeida enjoyed the home support on his way to a top-10 finish, losing 19 seconds to his teammate and just two to Roglič, the only GC contender to go faster than the Portuguese favourite, while Yates exceeded expectations in losing just 34 seconds to the stage winner over 12 kilometres of pan-flat terrain. It’s the perfect start; just as you’d expect from this team.
- A number of GC favourites finished well compared to Roglič on unfavourable terrain, including Almeida and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) within five seconds; Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) and Yates within 20; Enric Mas (Movistar), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost) and Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike) within half a minute.
- Defending champion Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) had a less-good start, finishing 62nd on the stage, losing 53 seconds to McNulty and, more importantly, 36 to best GC finisher Roglič.
- Few had a worse start than
SoudalT-Rex QuickStep leader Mikel Landa, though. The Basque rider came to his home Grand Tour as de facto team leader after playing a crucial role in Remco Evenepoel’s successful run at the Tour podium earlier this summer. His preferred terrain is still to come, of course, but Landa already has 48 seconds to make up (on Roglič’s benchmark) with the Vuelta just 12 kilometres old.
Up next
Stage 2 takes the Vuelta up the coast from Cascais to Ourém over lumpy terrain that begins straight out of the blocks with a Cat.4 climb. The next classified hill comes about 170 km later and just 25 km from the finish, but that’s not to say that every other kilometre is flat – far from it. With a descent and a few further lumps and bumps in the run-in, then a short ramp to the line, it’s one of few opportunities for the small number of fast(er) men who have made the trip. Look to Wout van Aert and Visma-Lease a Bike to make the day hard, especially for the likes of Kaden Groves, Bryan Coquard, Corbin Strong and Pavel Bittner who burst onto the scene at the recent Vuelta a Burgos.
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