Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) crushed the opposition in the opening prologue of the Vuelta a Andalusia when he put a massive 7 seconds into 2nd places Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) on the short 7.3km course. Having been up against Sky TT specialists Bradley Wiggins, Richie Porte, and Geraint Thomas, the two-time defending champion admitted to being very surprised by the results.

The 60th Vuelta a Andalucía started off with a bang for the Movistar Team as Alejandro Valverde will wear the leader's jersey on Thursday, following a convincing win in the 7.3km opening prologue on the outskirts of Almería. The Spaniard had good references from the start of the day thanks to good performances from his teammates, with Javi Moreno (8th) taking up the hot seat for some minutes, plus Ion Izagirre, who was able to beat the Sky trio of Vasil Kiryienka, Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas by four seconds. Valverde went flat out into a course combining power straights and very technical sections where the telephone squad's leader profited from his explosive abilities.

Valverde crossed the finish with a seven-second margin over Dutchman Tom Dumoulin who had beaten Izagirre - eventually 3rd - minutes earlies, to claim his first win of the 2014 season, the team's fourth so far and the 74th in his long pro career.

Valverde had faced some tough competition from the Sky trio of Bradley Wiggins, Richie Porte, and Geraint Thomas and the Spaniard admitted to being surprised by the result.

"I'm the first one who's surprised about this result, not only because of the win but also due to the time gaps against such rivals, in such a short TT," he said. "It's true that I had already won last year in front of strong guys, but the field competing here, especially in terms of time trial performance, was really hard to beat. I knew I was doing well with my form, but I didn't know how good."

Valverde admitted that he benefited from the very technical nature of the course.

“Profiting from our training camp in Almería, we came here on Monday to try the course," he said. "We reconnoitered it twice and I rode through it this morning with closed roads. I quite liked it because it had some pace changes.

"It was the first time on my new TT bike and this debut was impossible to improve. We're very satisfied with how it works - we did ride on them for several days in the Circuit of Almería, that was crucial because it was our first time on them and we had to accustom ourselves to the measures, the geometry..."

The great performance by Movistar means that they now lead the teams classification and are in a perfect position ahead of tomorrow's difficult  stage one - 178km from Vélez Málaga to Jaén - with a total six climbs and an exhausting finale over Locubín (Cat-2), Valdepeñas (Cat-2) and up to the finish at the Castillo de Santa Catalina (Cat-3). With several mountainous stages, Valverde ref.uses to take anything for granted

"I am back in the lead here, but there's a really hard race ahead of us," he said. "We'll go day by day, trying to keep the team together and doing well. The rivals will have to better us and we'll make it hard for them. I didn't prepare myself really hard to perform well this early in the season, but as I always say, it's easy for me to get into racing form, and the previous months, apart from some days with high fever after Dubai, didn't mean any troubles for me.”

Sports director Eusebio Unzué said that the course had made all the difference.

“This time trial was very, very technical," he told Cyclingnews. "We knew that top time triallists like [Bradley] Wiggins would have a tough time on it because there were so many radical changes of pace and it was not for real time trial experts, so a rider like Alejandro, given he’s in good shape anyhow, was always going to do well.”

With Sky putting four riders in the top 10, the race and maybe the entire season shapes up to be a battle between the two teams that finished 1st and 2nd in last year's WorldTour. However, Unzue refuses to see it that way.

“It’s not as simple as that,” he said. “Sky, for sure, are going to have a big impact on the season, and they will be as strong in some races like the Grand Tours, as they have been in other years. At the same time, we’ve got a really good squad, and we’ll be battling them all the way.”

Starting at 14.15 CET, you can follow tomorrow's first stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live. You can read our preview of the race here.