Key Takeaways: Vuelta a España Stage 1

Breaking down an opening team time trial that opened up some surprisingly significant time gaps

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Jumbo-Visma kicked the 2022 Vuelta a España off with a bang by storming through the streets of Utrecht, Holland in perfect unison to win the 23-kilometer team time trial and give their team leader Primož Roglič a sizable head start in the GC standings as he begins the pursuit of his fourth consecutive overall GC victory. Roglič might have taken the day’s moral GC victory, but his decision to let Robert Gesink, a veteran domestique teammate, cross the finish line before him means that Gesink was able to take the race’s inaugural overall lead and will have the honor of wearing the leader’s jersey for the opening weekend.

While the Ineos and QuickStep teams put up a good fight, they were no match for the Dutch Jumbo squad who looked almost absurdly smooth as they rotated high-speed turns and were extremely at ease on their home Dutch roads. However, the solid performances from Ineos and QuickStep mean that GC hopefuls like Richard Carapaz and Remco Evenepoel were able to limit their losses while the rest of the overall contenders were forced to leave the opening stage with a relatively massive deficit in the GC standings and will have to already start brainstorming ways to take back time against the top three GC riders. This could prove a difficult task since we now know that Roglič, Carapaz, and Evenepoel, outside of being some of the strongest riders at the race, are also on the strongest three teams.

Stage Top 3:
1) Jumbo-Visma +0
2) Ineos +13
3) QuickStep +14

GC Top 3:
1) Robert Gesink +0
2) Primož Roglič +0
3) Chris Harper +0

Filtered GC Standings:
Primož Roglič +0
Richard Carapaz +13
Remco Evenepoel +14
Simon Yates +31
João Almeida +33
Jai Hindley +41
Mikel Landa +42
Gino Mader +42
Enric Mas +43
Miguel Ángel López +46
Ben O’Connor +55
Hugh Carthy +1’19

Stage 1 Notebook:

Team BikeExchange: Simon Yates’ BikeExchange is the first of the ‘fast’ teams and easily sets the fastest time through each checkpoint and heads into the finish ready to set the fastest time.

But, something I notice is Yates getting tailed off the back of the group heading into and out of corners. This could indicate he might not be on fantastic form and that the team had to slow down to avoid dropping him and didn’t get the fastest possible time they were capable of.

Ineos: Richard Carapaz’s Ineos team comes into the final few kilometers ahead of BikeExchange. They look like a force but some of their behavior, like riders getting slightly tailed off and being forced to chase back on tells us that they might not have the best cohesion internally (it seems like the entire roster is racing for their own GC chances) and struggled due to the lack of experience in TTT’s among their young riders.

QuickStep: Remco Evenepoel’s QuickStep team goes through the course with impressive speed, but they are visibly less smooth than Ineos. For example, Julian Alaphilippe is exhibiting his bouncy riding style while the rest of the team struggles to get a draft off of both him and Evenepoel due to their smaller frames.

And the presence of Evenepoel, who is both extremely strong and aerodynamic, means that as he accelerates as they approach the finish line, the rest of the team struggles to hold his wheel.

This speed disparity and lack of cohesion show as they come over the finish line with Evenepoel pulling away from the rest of the team.

Jumbo-Visma: The hometown Jumbo-Visma flies through the course despite Sepp Kuss (#6) sitting at the back while the rest of the team rotates in front of him. This is incredibly impressive since they are blowing away the rest of the field despite essentially riding down a rider while also showing that they are protecting Kuss for a backup GC role.

When they come through the intermediate time check 14-seconds ahead of QuickStep we know the race for the stage win is likely over.

Interestingly, when they come through the finish line with a massive 13-second lead over second place Ineos, Roglič has his teammate Robert Gesink ride over the line first, meaning that Gesink, instead of Roglič, will take the race’s first leader’s jersey. This is both classy and smart since it rewards a hard-working veteran teammate and takes the pressure off Roglič, who won’t have to deal with the post-stage media requirements of the race leader.

Key Takeaways: