Vuelta a España: Dennis claims opening stage win

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Rohan Dennis (BMC) delivered on expectations to win the opening time trial of the 2018 Vuelta a España in Málaga, taking the first red leader’s jersey of the race. The Australian beat Michał Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) into second place by six seconds, while Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Soudal) completed the podium, seven seconds down.

Dylan Van Baarle (Team Sky) set the early running, as the first man to complete the flat 8km course in under ten minutes. Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) was the first to beat the Dutch TT champions' time, crossing the line in 9:56, but would soon be beaten by Kwiatkowski, who smashed the Portuguese riders' time by ten seconds.

Campenaerts got within a second of the Pole's time, but it was Dennis who set the fastest time by five seconds at the intermediate check, eventually crossing the line with a time of 9:39 to take the overall lead, completing his set of Grand Tour leader's jerseys.

"Look at Kwiatkowski – he put on a lot of pressure," said Dennis after the stage. "Honestly I was hoping that his time would be a little bit slower so there was less stress going into it but in the end, you've got to do what you can do and I just put everything out there and hoped for the win.

"I knew that basically the race finished at the top of the hill and you can't really take any time out from there. You might lose one or two seconds, but that's it. So I just thought I'd go all-in to the top.

"Honestly I was just thinking about trying to get a stage win, an individual stage win at the Vuelta," he added, after being informed that he was one of 15 men to win a time trial at each Grand Tour. "And I tried to top off the three wins in each Grand Tour. That was the first goal, to get a win in the Vuelta – especially after doing what I did in the Giro."

While the likes of Dennis and Kwiatkowski can be considered outside contenders for the general classification, there was a more mixed day for the more established GC men.

Richie Porte (BMC), who has been suffering from illness in the run-up to the race, put in a time of 10:30, while Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) set a time of 10:19, the same as Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and one second ahead of fellow Italian Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates).

Rigoberto Urán (EF-Drapac) might be disappointed with his time of 10:24, while his compatriots Miguel Ángel López (Astana) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) had better days, setting times of 10:14 and 10:10 respectively.

Dutchman Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) went even better with a time of 10:02, while Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) was four seconds behind, and Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) came in at 10:09

Home hopes Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and the Izagirre brothers (Bahrain-Merida) had strong outings. Valverde came in at 10:03 alongside Gorka Izagirre, while brother Ion finished ninth at 10:01.

How it happened

The opening time trial of the 2018 Vuelta a España was the race's first opening TT since 2009, and marked the third time the Spanish Grand Tour had ever started in Málaga. Previous starts saw Alex Zülle take the then-golden leader's jersey back in 2000, while CSC triumphed in the 2006 Vuelta opening TTT.

It would be the only chance for the rouleurs to impress for over two weeks, with no other tests against the clock coming until stage 16's TT in Cantabria. The time trial (don't call it a prologue – that label only applies to courses under 8km in length) featured largely flat, wide roads on a not particularly technical course, and took in the beachfront with a small drag midway through.

Jorge Cubero (Burgos-BH) got proceedings underway, posting a time of 10:46, though that would quickly be blown away as Sebastian Langeveld (EF-Drapac) put in the quickest time of the early runners with a 10:04.

The first man under ten minutes was Team Sky's Dylan Van Baarle, who managed to scrape under the mark with an impressive time of 9:59. Teammate Jonathan Castroviejo came close, just missing out on taking the provisional lead with a time of 10:01, but seconds later Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) came through in 9:56 to take over the hot seat.

BMC's early riders did well, auguring well for stage favourite Rohan Dennis' hopes. Midway through the stage, the team had three men in the top ten, with Alessandro De Marchi at 10:00, Dylan Teuns at 10:01, and Brent Bookwalter at 10:03, while the ailing Porte came in at 10:30.

Meanwhile, Oliveira's time at the top of the standings was short-lived, as Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) flew around the course in a time of 9:46. European champion Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Soudal) came close, missing out by a single second, while 8km down the road Dennis set off.

The Australian looked smooth and fast as soon as he hit the tarmac, setting the fastest time at the intermediate checkpoint, putting in the ride everybody had expected of him to go fastest at 9:39. with only four men left to run behind him, Dennis didn't have to sweat over his fifth win of the season – each one a time trial.

Quintana and Nibali were the last two men down the start ramp, putting in times nine seconds apart, but with the majority of the big GC names clustered between times of 10:09 and 10:30, the impact of the opening time trial on the quest for red hadn't been huge.

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