Itzulia Basque Country stage 1 - live coverage

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the opening stage of the 2022 Itzulia Basque Country!

The racing here in Hondarribia got underway just over 15 minutes ago and we've already seen several riders cross the line after their efforts. 

It's mostly minor names at this early stage, though. Volta ao Alentejo winner Orluis Aular (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) is the early leader with a time of 10:37.

Ignatas Konovalovas, Kenny Elissonde, and Daniel Navarro are next quickest at the finish at the moment.

It's a short time trial at just 7.5km but it's a tough one with several hills along the way, including two separate short climbs (500m and 200m) at a 9 per cent gradient.

Michael Woods is the first big GC name to start his ride. He'll head out in four minutes.

A 10:19 from Omar Fraile puts him top of the standings so far. Marc Soler lies four second down at the line with Lucas Hamilton at 10:26.

4:57 for Woods at the intermediate checkpoint puts him seventh quickest there so far.

Here's a look at the start times today. 

The likes of Roglič, Higuita, Mas, Evenepoel, Geoghegan Hart all come at the end of the day after 5pm local time.

10th place for Woods at the line, 30 seconds down on Fraile...

Fraile, De Bod, Soler, Hamilton and Lastra are the top five at the moment. The top four under 10:30.

Clément Champoussin is the only non-starter today. He's out of the race before the start due to "family reasons", his AG2R team has said.

A look at Fraile finishing his strong rider to go top so far...

Ben Tulett and Nelson Oliveira have produced two fast times in quick succession.

Tulett's 10:09 puts him 10 seconds up on Ineos teammate Fraile. Oliveira goes second, four seconds down.

Jan Polanc goes fourth at 10:21.

Ineos duo Cristian Rodriguez and Adam Yates off in the next 10 minutes, George Bennett too.

Top five at the moment is Tulett, Oliveira, Fraile, Polanc, De Bod. 13 seconds between them.

AG2R's Andrea Vendrame has gone quickly at the checkpoint to go fourth with a time of 4:44.

Adam Yates is down the start ramp and out on course. 

Here's what Michael Woods said about his time trial effort – "technical and complicated" but one to open the legs up for the rest of the week's racing.

A 4:35 for Adam Yates at the checkpoint! That's eight seconds up on the next quickest time there...

Dries Devenyns' 4:41 puts him second at the checkpoint.

A 10:06 for Yates at the finish puts him top! Three seconds up on teammate Tulett.

Yates, Tulett, Oliveira, Molard, Fraile the top five at the moment.

And Devenyns just crosses the line in fourth place, eight seconds down.

A chain problem for Euskaltel-Euskadi rider Asier Exteberria on the early climb sees him switch to a road bike for much of the ride.

A 44.6kph average speed for Yates shows how hilly this course is today.

2019 race winner Ion Izagirre is off in a few minutes. He'll be followed by Geraint Thomas, Oscar Rodriguez, and Mauri Vansevenant.

Etxeberria getting plenty of TV time as he races up the cobbled streets to the finish in Hondarribia cheered on by large crowds at the team's home race.

Izagirre heads out in his Spanish TT champion jersey.

Now Thomas heads out.

4:38 for Izagirre on top of that first climb. He's just three seconds down Yates at that checkpoint.

Thomas goes through a minute later and matches Yates' time of 4:35!

Izagirre neck and neck with Yates at the moment.

Now he heads onto the cobbled streets of Hondarribia as he edges towards the finish. It's going to be close between him, Yates, and Thomas...

10:08 for Izagirre to just miss Yates' time by two seconds.

Thomas races to the line now. 10:06 for him too...

He's just 0.16 of a second up on Yates! So close.

The top five so far...

1 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 10:06

2 Adam Yates (GBr) ineos Grenadiers 10:06

3 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Cofidis 10:08

4 Ben Tulett (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 10:09

5 Nelson Oliveira (Por) Movistar 10:13

Ninth place for Mauri Vansevenant at 10:18. Pretty close at the top...

Thomas says it's "nice to be up there, better an expected" after his ride. 

He adds that he's aiming to work for his team this week and hopes for a "good week of racing in the legs".

No huge names out on course at the moment.

Aleksandr Vlasov heads out in five minutes, though. Dani Martínez and Rémi Cavagna start a few minutes later.

Vlasov starts, followed a few minutes later by Martinez.

Bruno Armirail (Grouapama-FDJ) goes third quickest at the line having pulled back quite a lot of time in the second half of the course. He's two seconds down on Thomas.

Vlasov six seconds off at the checkpoint.

Martinez, Izagirre, Cavagna coming up soon.

Vlasov closing in a few seconds on the descent.

4:37 for Martínez at the top of the climb, just two seconds down on Thomas and Yates.

Cavagna within a second of the quickest time on the climb! It's all very close at the top so far..

Meanwhile, Vlasov has caught Bauer as he closes in on the finish line.

Vlasov is just 0.23 down on Thomas! That's third place. So close.

Martínez approaching the finish now. Izagirre and Cavagna next.

10:09 for Martínez to go seventh, just seven seconds down.

10:12 for Gorka Izagirre as Cavagna closes in on the line...

And Cavagna has done it! Quickest by just over a second!

Kuss, Padun, Gaudu out on course at the moment...

No big times since Cavagna finished. Now his compatriot and teammate Julian Alaphilippe sets off...

Buchmann is out there at the moment. He's 13 seconds down on the climb.

4:51 on the climb for Ineos' Carlos Rodriguez. He won't be threatening the top of the leaderboards.

Jonas Vingegaard heads off now.

Rigoberto Uran also out on course at the moment.

Alaphilippe 85th at the checkpoint. He's not going well today...

Vingegaard goes through the checkpoint eight seconds down in ninth.

38th at 10:32 for Alaphilippe at the finish.

Vingegaard finishes seventh with a time of 10:08. Only four seconds down.

Only eight seconds cover the top 10.

Not long now until Roglič rounds the time trial off. He starts in 29 minutes.

A look at our quickest man so far, Cavagna.

Mikel Nieve heads down the start ramp for Caja Rural-Seguros RGA.

Nobody else threatening the top 10 since Vingegaard passed through the finish.

News coming through that Alaphilippe had to change his bike on the climb. That's why he shed so much time.

Alaphilippe had a chain problem.

Starters separated by two-minute intervals now. Pierre Latour the latest man out.

Sergio Higuita rolls down the start ramp.

4:38 and fifth for Latour at the top of the climb, a nice time so far.

Geoghegan Hart and Mas the next to start followed by Evenepoel.

Higuita 22 seconds down at the top of the climb. Not great..

Mas heads out to start his race.

10:13 for Latour puts him just outside the top 10 at the finish.

And now it's Remco Evenepoel starting his ride. Can he top the timing charts in about 10 minutes' time?

26th at 4:45 for Geoghegan Hart at the check on top of the climb.

Higuita comes to the line.

The Colombian finishes in 50th place, 29 seconds down at 10:33.

Formolo heads out to start his ride, leaving just Pello Bilbao and Primož Roglič left to start.

Evenepoel heads over the top of the climb and he's a mammoth eight seconds up on Yates! That's after just 3.15km of this stage.

Here comes Roglič...

Evenpoel 12 seconds up now according to the live timing as he heads down the descent.

Roglič rolls down the ramp in his gold helmet and gold bike as Olympic TT champion.

Mas finishes his ride. 33rd place at 20 seconds down.

Easily the quickest time for Evenepoel.

9:53 means he goes 11 seconds quicker than Cavagna. Only Roglič can beat that now.

Roglič just half a second slower than Evenpoel at the checkpoint over the climb.

Formolo comes to the finish with a decent time of 19:30. Just Pello Bilbao left to come and then Roglič...

Can Roglič overturn that half-second deficit?

Live timing showing Roglič a second up at the moment.

He's around two minutes from the line now. Bilbao comes to the line.

Bilbao finishes 24 seconds down with a time of 10:17.

Roglič races up the cobbled climb in the final kilometre. A very loud crowd cheers him on.

9:15 with 500 metres to go.

Onto the closing straight...

He's done it! Five seconds up on Evenepoel!

Here's the top 10...

1 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Jumbo-Visma 09:48:54
2 Remco Evenepoel (Bel) QuickStep-AlphaVinyl 09:53.04
3 Remi Cavagna (Fra) QuickStep-AlphaVinyl 10:04.73
4 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 10:06.01
5 Adam Yates (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 10:06.17
6 Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Bora-Hansgrohe 10:06.24
7 Bruno Armirail (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 10:08.10
8 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Cofidis 10:08.75
9 Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma 10:08.88
10 Ben Tulett (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 10:09.82

A shot of today's winner, Roglič.

Some decent time gaps between the GC contenders already. Roglič is five seconds up on Evenepoel, with Thomas, Yates and Vlasov at 18 seconds. Ion Izagirre and Vingegaard at 20 seconds down, while Martínez is at 21 seconds.

Further back, Geoghegan Hart is 32 seconds down along with Gaudu. Buchmann is at 33 seconds, Soler at 35, Mas at 36, Uran at 40, Alaphilippe at 44, and Higuita at 45.

Here's our brief report for the opening stage of Itzulia Basque Country

Here's what Roglič had to say after the finish...

"I'm super happy that I won. It was super technical, a lot of corners. I had the legs and yeah, it's crazy.

"It's just the start. It was 10 minutes of effort. You can't have super big differences but I always say it's always better to have some advantage than disadvantage. But it doesn't mean anything yet.

"It's just the start but it's a great start. We'll take it day-by-day."

We'll have news coming from the race this evening so keep a watch out for that on the way.