Sky’s Chris Froome began his bid for a rare Tour de France-Vuelta a Espana double with a relatively gentle workout in the opening stage team time trial on Saturday with safety the main priority for the British outfit.
The 7.4km ride into the southern resort of Marbella, which included several narrow sand-covered stretches, will not count toward the overall standings due to safety concerns and Sky were focused on avoiding mishaps and saving energy for yesterday’s second stage as the team came home in 20th place out of 22.
BMC Racing of the US, who also won the team time trial at last month’s Tour de France and are the world champions, were first in 8 minutes, 10 seconds.
Tinkoff-Saxo of Russia and Australian outfit Orica were second and third respectively.
Slovakian rider Peter Velits led BMC over the line and is to wear the red leader’s jersey heading into yesterday’s stage, a hilly 158.7-km stretch into Caminito del Rey.
“When we’re the world team time trial champs, we have to do the stripes proud,” rider Tejay van Garderen told reporters. “It’s a tricky course, but in the end the guys stepped up and did us proud.”
Sky rider Geraint Thomas said it was “a big disappointment” the stage had been neutralized.
“When the organizers said there weren’t going to be any times taken ... we decided to take it easy and stay upright,” he explained.
“I rode most of the race on my sidebars, because it was so bumpy and because there was a lot of gravel and sand on the corners. If everyone had gone flat out it might have been quite dangerous,” Thomas added.
Froome, who also won the Tour de France in 2013, was runner-up in last year’s Vuelta a Espana behind Spaniard Alberto Contador.
Contador is not contesting this year’s race, the 70th edition of the event, after winning the Giro d’Italia, but struggling on the Tour de France.
Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil (1963) and Bernard Hinault (1978) are the only riders to have won the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana in the same year.
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