The waiting time is finally over! The Vuelta a Espana kicks off tomorrow in its usual spectacular fashion with an evening time trial and a start on a large barge located in the ria de Arousa. The GC riders will get into swing right from the beginning as time gaps will open up on the very first day. The completely flat course and long straights suit the powerful specialists who will reach high speeds as they battle for the honour of wearing the first red leader's jersey of this year's edition. Starting at 18.40 CEST you can follow the stage in its entirety on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

The course

For the fourth year in a row, the Vuelta will kick off with a spectacular evening team time trial, thus offering the GC contenders an opportunity to open up the first time gaps already on the first day. The riders will set off on a large barge in Vilanova de Arousa and head onto a 27,4km, almost completely flat course that finishes on the coast in Sanxenxo where John Degenkolb won one of his five sprint stages last year. The route mostly follows the coast in a southern direction and has very few technical elements. This is a course for the powerful specialists, not too different from the one used for the stage 4 team time trial in the Tour, and so it has very few similarities with the technical opening stage in Pamplona last year or the hilly team time trial that kicked off the 2011 race in Benidorm. The stage finishes with a descent towards the coast and the riders will turn to the left with 2km when they hit flat roads along the seafront. From there, a number of sweepings bends will be the only challenges as the riders head to another spectacular finish in the Sanxenxo harbour.

Compared to the recent Vuelta team time trials, it is a very long one and so we could see bigger time gaps than usual. On the other hand, team time trials are often decided by mere seconds and the time won or lost will probably not be overly important when we come to the end of a race that has no less than 11 uphill finishes. However, it will be psychologically important to get the foot off the ground in the right way and lost seconds may have more of a mental impact than a lasting effect on the GC.

The weather

The Vuelta is feared for its extreme heat and the race has often got off to a very hot start, especially in 2010 when the race took off from the Spanish frying pan in Sevilla. This year's coastal start in the northern Galicia province will allow the riders to get their race off to a much more humane beginning and the conditions will be unusually cool compared to the usual Vuelta weather.

The riders should enjoy beautiful sunshine for their evening stage and there won't be a single cloud on the sky. The temperatures should stay around the 20-degree mark for most of the stage, being on their way down from  their 22-degree peak at the midpoint of the day. It will be a rather windy day with a strong breeze blowing from a northern direction. Hence, the riders will have a tailwind for almost the entire stage and we should see some immense speeds on this flat, non-technical course.

The favourites

The course may be very similar to the one used for this year's Tour de France team time trial but the mountainous build-up of this year's Vuelta route means that no team has lined up a very powerful team for the team time trial. The Spanish grand tour simply hasn't attracted the same number of time trial specialists and this makes the opening stage and the battle for the first leader's jersey an open and much more unpredictable affair.

Nonetheless, the world champions in the discipline shape up to be the biggest favourite to win the stage. As usual, Omega Pharma-Quick Step has red-circled the team time trial as one of their major targets for the race and they have lined up a strong team to support its ambitions. The main driving force is of course world time trial champion Tony Martin who is almost able to win a team time trial on his own when the course is flat like tomorrow's. He hasn't raced since the Tour but the German is never too far away from his best form and would love to get the chance to wear his first ever leader's jersey in a grand tour by leading his team across the line.

With Belgian time trial champion Kristof Vandewalle at his side, Martin is part of a very strong duo of specialists. Guillaume Van Keirsbulck, Gianni Meersman, Zdenek Stybar and Andrew Fenn will all be useful in keeping up the speed on the long, flat straights and the team has very few weaknesses. Omega Pharma-Quick Step will be the team to beat and their most likely dream scenario is to put Martin into the red leader's jersey.

Their main rivals should be the Astana team of race favourite Vincenzo Nibali. While Omega Pharma-Quick Step is here to win the stage, the daily honour is of less importance for the Kazakh outfit. It's all about maximizing Nibali's potential time gains and with a very powerful roster, the team has a very good chance of getting their Vuelta campaign off to a perfect start. Nibali himself has improved massively in the time trial and he will line up alongside specialists like Andriy Grivko and Tanel Kangert. The former recently finished 9th in the Eneco Tour time trial and is riding very strongly these days. Janez Brajkovic and Jakob Fuglsang are both capable time triallists while Andrey Zeits should also deliver a valuable contribution. With only a few weak links, the team has a great chance of winning the stage and if that happens, expect the team to put loyal domestique Paolo Tiralongo into the first leader's jersey of the race.

Martin is one of two big time trial specialists in this race and the other one also spearheads a very strong team. Fabian Cancellara will be the driving force on a Radioshack team that doesn't have any other outstanding time triallist but a homogenous roster with a number of riders who are very capable in the discipline. Yaroslav Popovych has long been regarded as a valuable team time trial rider and he will join forces with riders like Haimar Zubeldia, Markel Irizar and Ben Hermans to form a well-rounded squad for stage 1. GC rider Robert Kiserlovski fears this stage and will have to hang on for dear life to not get dropped by his strong team. The team may lack a little bit of depth to win the stage but should not be too far off the mark.

Team Sky is never too far away in a team time trial and they shouldn't be in tomorrow's stage either. The team may lack its best time triallists on its roster but still has plenty of horsepower for tomorrow's flat course. Former Italian time trial champion Dario Cataldo was strong in the Vuelta a Burgos and Edvald Boasson Hagen claims to be in good condition following his recovery from his broken shoulder. They will be joined by Vasil Kiriyenka to form the team's main driving forces while Christian Knees, Luke Rowe and Salvatore Puccio all know how to keep up the pace on the long straight roads. This time Sky is not the favourite team but don't be too surprised if the British team gives GC captain Sergio Henao the perfect start.

An outsider for today is Belkin which lines up a team with a dual focus. Bauke Mollema and Laurens Ten Dam have set their sights on the GC but the team will also keep a firm eye on the sprints. Theo Bos will be supported by a strong lead-out train consisting of Graeme Brown, Robert Wagner and David Tanner. That may backfire on the mountain stages but on tomorrow's high-speed course, it is a clear advantage. Combining forces with Luis-Leon Sanchez, Stef Clement and Mollema, the sprint train may be what gets the Belkin campaign off to a good start.

Finally, we will point to Movistar. Looking at the riders, the team lacks genuine time trial specialists with Jose Ivan Gutierrez and Benat Intxausti being the only riders falling into that category. However, the team has put heavy emphasis on their team time trial training and that has paid off. They finished 2nd in Tirreno-Adriatico and the Giro d'Italia, 6th in last year's world championships and even won at last year's Vuelta a Espana. In all races, they lined up a homogenous roster without many big specialists and the team now finds itself in the position where it may be regarded as a perennial favourite for the team time trials. The team is less suited to tomorrow's power course than last year's technical Pamplona circuit and so may not repeat last year's win. They should, however, not be too far off the mark and so set Alejandro Valverde up for a potential stint in the leader's jersey at the end of Sunday's first uphill finish.

CyclingQuotes' stage winner pick: Omega Pharma-Quick Step

Other winner candidates: Astana, Radioshack

Outsiders: Sky, Belkin, Movistar