The Vuelta started today with a team time trial. BMC was the fastest on a very short and entirely flat course. Tinkoff Saxo and Orica GreenEdge followed at only one second. Lotto Soudal finished in a nice seventh place with a time of 8’28". The times will not count for the individual classification because there was a lot of discussion about the course in the previous week.

“It wasn’t decided beforehand to go for such a strong time, but we started late so we could see how the other teams rode their time trial. Apparently many teams went full gas," sports director Mario Aerts said. "We had a few very motivated riders and eventually five riders gave their all, although they didn’t take many risks. No one crashed and that’s the most important thing. Today was a fine opening, tomorrow it’s the real start of this year’s Vuelta. We’re definitely going to show ourselves during the following stages.”