British sprint sensation Mark Cavendish took the leader’s jersey on the first day of the Vuelta a Espana after powering his HTC-Columbia team to victory in the team time trial on Saturday.
The US team stormed over the 13km course in the floodlight streets of Seville in 14 minutes, 6 seconds, in a race that broke new ground by beginning at 10pm.
They were 10 seconds ahead of the Liquigas team that includes Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali, one of the favorites for this year’s title.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Danish outfit Saxo Bank, which stars Luxembourg’s Andy and Frank Schleck and Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara, were third, 12 seconds behind the winners.
Fourth was Italy’s Lampre-Farnese and fifth US team Garmin-Transitions.
Cavendish, making his debut in Spain, takes the leader’s jersey, which this year is red rather than the traditional gold. Joining him on the podium were the Slovak twins Peter and Martin Velits.
The 25-year-old Isle of Man rider already has a remarkable string of stage wins in major Tours that includes 15 victories in the Tour de France over the past three years.
He will have another chance to show off his skills on the second stage, which covers a relatively flat 173.7km course from Alcala de Guadaira to Marbella and which should favor a group finish, but the course overall, which includes six summit finishes in eight mountain stages, is expected to favor the climbers.
Many believe the event could be won or lost on the penultimate stage, a 168.8km course that ends atop the 2,250m Bola del Mundo in the Guadarrama mountain rang northwest of Madrid.
The event has been left wide open by the absence of three-time Tour de France winner Spaniard Alberto Contador, who skipped his home Tour, which he won in 2008, after a hard-fought victory in France last month and last year’s winner Alejandro Valverde, who is serving a suspension for doping.
Top contenders now include Russian Denis Menchov, a two-time Vuelta winner, the Schleck brothers and 2008 Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre of Spain.
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