Welcome to Málaga for the very first day on the Vuelta, every rider is exited but also nervous about this rather long and undulated prologue that could be able to make top climber lose some serious seconds that they will have to claim back later.
The important mid stage climb contains slopes close to 10%, with a total altitude gain of about 130 meters.
It is 24°C, partly clouded and almost no wind.
The Race
First up today is Weinstein, starting first he is guaranteed time in the hot seat, and he is not a bad tempo riders. He passes the time check in 2’53 and come in with full time 11’50.
17 riders later, we see the start of the first better climbers, Aegon – Lavazza co-leader Velits, being also an ok tempo rider he could pose a threat to Weinstein especially as he only loses 1” at the early time check. Velits clearly stronger uphill come in with new best 11’31. Velits taking 20” uphill shows that climbing is important today.
Wirtgen and Per both at the same time as Velits at the time check but lose respectively 14” and 15” full time, Stüssi also full time +15”
Grieg - Maersk leader Sigurd Nesset also with a good time comes in 2nd at +8”, despite being 3” behind at the time check.
Salinas just 1” behind at the time check comes in at new 2nd best +5”
Vangstad new best at the time check, but loses a bit uphill and 2nd best at +1” full time
Sosnitskiy full time +21”
Rybalkin full time 5th +10”
Tvetcov loses 3” at the time check but with a great finish new best 11’30 under a second faster than Velits
Russom 4th +2”
Nareklishvili new best at the time check 2’48, but loses at the climb getting a full time 7th +9”
Iturria full time 7th +9”
EA Vesuvio leader Alex Kirsch, 9” behind at the time check, he lost 19” to Tvetcov
Denifl lose 6” at the time check but very fast on the climb he set new best 11’28”
Gazelle leader Denys Karnulin 10” behind at the time check, 25th best he loses 24” to Denifl
Fablok - Bank BGZ leader Hacecky, 9” behind at the time check, 19th at full time 19” behind Denifl.
Pruus 9th best full time +11”
Koep 7th best at +7” pretty good race from him.
Tempo specialist Golovash new best at the time check 2’48, but not a great climber he loses 23” at full time.
Both a strong tempo rider and climber Lunke with a disappointing race, loses 6” at the check and 11” full time not breaking top 10
Ciccone loses 26” not the best day for him either.
Canty with a great time edging Stefan Denifl with 10’s of a second, new best in also 11’28”
(Editorial note: In the official result turns out he is behind Stefan Denifl, but we don’t know at this point)
Aegon – Lavazza co-leader Keinath 7th at +5”
Brändle 6th at +4”
Tempo specialist Gonzalez Salas loses 41”, he just can’t climb.
Danacik +6”
Galta +6”
Bevin +6”
eBuddy leader Brambilla lost 10” at the time check, 40th at full time finishing 24” behind Hugh Carthy
Carthy another good climber, with a considerable amount of time lost +26
Foliforov, +11”
Andriafenomananiaina +6”
Team Puma - SAP leader Vasyliv +4” at the time check and 15th full time +9”
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ leader Gregory Brenes lost 9” at the time check, 53th at full time finishing 26” behind Hugh Carthy
Evonik - ELKO leader Lopez with quite a good result from him, just +3” at the time check, full time losing just +13” as 26th.
Festina - OAKA leader Bongiorno also a fine result from him, considering he is not a tempo rider. 9” behind at the time check, 28th full time at +15”
The wind conditions have changes a little from 1 km/h to 5 km/h, may wonder if that is the reason we seem to get slightly better results now?
Tempo rider Würtz with new best time at the intermediate check 2’46” and even though he can’t climb losing just 13”
Bennelong – Mitchelton leader Jack Haig was 3” behind at the time check, 8th at full time finishing 5” behind Hugh Carthy.
Air France – KLM leader Nairo Quintana, was 9” behind at the time check, 19th at full time finishing 11” behind Hugh Carthy.
T-Mobile leader Georg Preidler is without doubt the worst tempo rider in the favorite group, so interesting to see him start. He lost 22” up to the time check and 48” full time, seen isolated not to bad, but of course the much longer ITT later on, might hurt a lot more.
Aegon – Lavazza co-leader Daan Olivier lost 12” up to the intermediate time check, a total of 27” behind Hugh Carthy.
Repsol – Netflix leader Merhawi Kudus, was 8” behind at the time check, 31th at full time finishing 15” behind Hugh Carthy.
Moser – Sygic leader Warren Barguil, 11” behind at the time check, 45th at full time finishing 21” behind Hugh Carthy.
Isostar – LimeBike leader Martijn Keizer, just 1” behind at the time check and we got the first new best for some time 11’14, that we 16” better than Carthy
Farfetch Pro Cycling leader Mattia Cattaneo, 5” behind at the time check, 2nd at full time finishing 12” behind Martijn Keizer.
Team Tinkoff leader Timofey Kritskiy, new best at the time check 2’46 and also new best full time 11’12, 2” faster than Martijn Keizer
Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff leader Aleksandr Pluchkin, at the intermediate check exactly as fast as Timofey Kritskiy but he gets new best full time, same time as Kritskiy 11’12
Desigual leader Justo Tenorio, 1” behind at the intermediate check, but also he gets new best full time, still in same time as Kritskiy 11’12
Last on the route Aker – MOT leader Rein Taaramäe, also 1” behind at the intermediate check, but he beat the 11’12 time set by the previous 3 riders with 1”, 11’11”
Vuelta a Espana 
