Vuelta a España: Primoz Roglic wins opening time trial in Burgos

Image 1 of 27

Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) won the opening stage of the 2021 Vuelta a España with a blistering time trial ride in Burgos.

The defending champion was the last man out, and put in a time six seconds quicker than Alex Aranburu (Astana-PremierTech), who had spent most of the day in the hot-seat after setting an early benchmark.

Aranburu would have to settle for second-place, which, although surely higher than he must have been expecting to finish, must feel disappointing having held the lead for so long. 

Jan Tratnik (Bahrain-Victorious) placed third with a time eight seconds slower than Roglic, with Tom Skully (EF Education-Nippo) fourth and Jose Cerny (Deceuninck-QuickStep) fifth, both at ten seconds. 

Most of the other GC contenders finished between 14 and 30 seconds behind Roglic, with Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) losing 26 seconds to the Sloveninan. 

Of the riders expected to challenge Roglic for the red jersey, Alexander Vlasov (Astana-PremierTech) fared best, losing just fourteen seconds.

Romain Bardet (DSM) put in a surprisingly good time given his record against the clock, and was the next best of the GC candidates with a 14th place finish at 17 seconds.

Behind him, Enric Mas (Movistar), Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious), Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers), Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar), Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) were all only separated by less than ten seconds.

Both Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) were a little off the pace, but the short length of the time trial means their losses to Roglic are limited to 33 seconds and 39 seconds respectively. 

Roglic was nevertheless understandably delighted by this early boost to his title defence ambitions.

“It was crazy, huh?” he exclaimed while still warming down at the finish. “Obviously it [his time] was enough. I’m super-happy and pleased with today’s result.”

“Seven kilometres are still super-hard. You don’t wish for more when you cross the line. It’s hard. It’s all-out from the start to the finish. 

“I don’t really know the intermediate times, but the fact is we have to go fast from the start uphill, and you also need to come down, and survive the corners, and push on the flat.”

When asked whether he was prepared to defend the red jersey from start to finish, he replied cagily. “We will see. It’s a beautiful start, I’m enjoying it, and we hopefully can enjoy it as a team in the upcoming days.”

How it unfolded

Burgos Cathedral was the spectacular backdrop for the opening stage of the 2021 Vuelta a Espana, with each riding setting off in turn from its grand entrance to complete a 7km route of the city. 

Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) was the first of the GC out on the road, and knocked Omar Fraile (Astana-PremierTech) off the hot-seat to set the early benchmark with a time of 8:52.

“I just wanted to get back to the hotel early,” explained Yates when asked about his decision to set off so early. “The guys that are starting last are starting at like 8.30pm, and that’s already past my bedtime.”

Both Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana-PremierTech) and Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates) pushed Yates’ time close, but it was his teammate Dylan van Baarle who was the first to better it, by a considerable margin of nine seconds. 

Van Baarle held the lead until Alex Aranburu (Astana-PremierTech) posted a time that was four seconds quicker, putting in a fully committed ride despite not being either a time trial specialist or GC contender.

Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Matthew Holmes (Lotto-Soudal) appeared to be threatening Aranburu’s time, and were both quicker at the intermediate time check, but both slowed considerably in the second half of the route - a pattern that made of the following riders would follow.

By contrast, Tom Skully (EF Education-Nippo) sped up during the second half, and arrived at the line just four seconds short of Aranburu, the closest contender to far.

One specialist against the clock, Tobias Ludvigsson (Groupama-FDJ), missed out on a chance to challenge for a high placing after a mechanical forced him to change bikes, much to his visible frustration. 

Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates) looked poised to challenge Aranburu’s time when he registered the quickest time of the day so far the intermediate time check, but he crossed the line almost a minute down on his road bike rather than the time trial bike he started on, indicating that he had been forced to change bikes at some point. 

Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) then posted a time quicker than Oliveira at the halfway point, but he too faded in the second half, meaning Aranaburu’s lead at the finish still remained intact. 

The top GC favourites then came thick and fast on the road, all posting fairly similar times, but none coming close to unseating Aranburu.

All got around without any major problems, although Enric Mas (Movistar) suffered a momentary scare when he almost became unbalanced around a corner.

Arnaburu’s time withheld the challenge of two specialists who set off near the end — Jan Tratnik fell 8 seconds short, and Josef Cerny 10 seconds.

But Aranburu’s long run at the top of the leaderboard at last came to an end when Primoz Roglic lived up to pre-race expectations, to win yet another Grand Tour stage, and take the first red jersey of the race.