Haimar Zubeldia (Trek) confirmed his excellent early-season condition when he finished 10th in today's Vuelta a Andalucia prologue. With Julian Arredondo also limiting his losses, Trek hopes to play a prominent role in the upcoming mountain stages.

Trek got their Vuelta a Andalucia off to a very promising start by placing three riders in the top 10 in the opening prologue. Led hope by an in-form Haimar Zubeldia in 10th, the team also had Belgian TT champion Kristof Vandewalle in 15th and Markel Irizar in 18th.

The latter is a past winner of the event and was hoping to do a good ride on the opening day. However, he had bad luck when he neared the finish on the 7.3km course.

“I was not so lucky today, I had a flat tire in the last kilometer,” said Irizar after the short race against the clock. “ But I felt good – I had good legs so I hope better days are coming!”

Trek Factory Racing is looking towards Julián Arredondo, who won two uphill race finishes in the Tour de San Luis, and Haimar Zubeldia as its two leaders during the week. Director and team trainer Josu Larrazabal gave an overview of the team’s prologue and what can be expected for the rest of the race.

“It was the best performance in such a short time trial that I have maybe seen from Haimar in the past two years," he said. "In this sense we are happy with the race today. Kristoff is still not at his best, but already we are seeing a big step from training camp, and Dubai. He is still finding top form but he is coming to his level.

“With Markel we had bad luck because in the last 300 meters there were two 90 degree turns and with a flat tire he lost a minimum of five seconds here. Without that he may also have cracked the top 10.

“Our first goal is stage wins with Julián [59th], as there are hard climbing stages here. We were unfortunate to lose Giacomo [Nizzolo] to injury just before this race so we don’t have a sprinter for the flat stages. For the GC we have both Julián and Haimar.  Arredondo also had a good performance in the prologue if you compare him to the other similar climbers.”

The race continues tomorrow with a very hilly first stage that ends at the top of a category 3 climb. Starting at 14.15 CET, you can follow it on CyclingQuotes.com/live. You can read our preview of the race here.