Rohan Dennis did was he does best on the opening stage of this year’s Vuelta a Espana today, time trialling to victory and into the first red leader’s jersey of the race after an impressive performance on the streets of Malaga.
Dennis was the fourth-to-last rider to roll off the ramp on stage 1 and as he started his 8km effort, he was chasing the benchmark of 9’46” set by Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky).
The reigning Australian national time trial champion proved why he was one of the pre-race favorites, settling into his rhythm quickly and powering around the first half of the course to knock five seconds off the best time at the intermediate checkpoint.
Dennis left everything out on the road on the fast run into the finish before powering across the line in an impressively strong time of 9’40” which proved more than enough to take the stage win and the first leader’s jersey of the race for a second consecutive year.
BMC Racing Team also proved the strength and depth of the team’s Vuelta a España roster today with Alessandro De Marchi putting in a determined effort in Malaga to secure seventh at the end of the stage, 21 seconds behind Dennis. While, Dylan Teuns and Brent Bookwalter put in solid rides to finish 11th and 14th respectively.
Richie Porte, who is making his return to racing at the third and final Grand Tour of the year, posted a time of 10’30” which was comparable to a number of the General Classification contenders in the race.
“Kwiatkowski definitely piled on a lot of pressure and honestly I was hoping the time would be a little slower so there would obviously be less stress going into it but in the end, you can only do what you can do and I just put everything out there and hoped for the win,” Dennis said after the stage. “It’s great to now have individual stage wins at all three Grand Tours but that wasn’t in my mind today. It was really just about making sure I achieved my first goal which was to get the stage win here.”
“I think the finish today was really at the top of the climb. You couldn’t lose too much time on the downhill so, it was really all about the first 5.5km and after that I just tried to get to the finish as fast as possible.”
“There was a bit of pressure and I saw Kwiatkowski’s time after my warm up and I won’t lie, I was saying I was going to beat it but in my mind, there was still a little bit of doubt. But, you stick to the plan and if you’re feeling good you can go a little bit harder and really it was only a 6’30” effort to the top of the hill and from there if you were in front it was hard to lose.”
“It feels pretty good (to be back in the leader’s jersey). Part of my goal coming into the Vuelta was to get a stage win and it’s nice to do that on the first day again and also get the jersey. I think after today it would have been pretty hard to get the red jersey so this was really my only chance to get it and we succeeded.”
“To be honest, it’s not a big deal if I lose the jersey tomorrow. My Vuelta is primarily to prepare for the UCI World Championships and the team has other goals with other riders so if I have to help, I have to help. I’m not here for the GC so while of course it would be nice to keep it, it’s not the end of the world if I lose it.”
“I know I am going to take a bit of a kicking over the first two weeks but I think I should be better in the last week. Mentally, it was hard to get over the crash in July and it wasn’t easy to restart or find my momentum but I have still done some good training. I am definitely not as good as I was at the Tour but hopefully by the end, I can be in good shape. I would love to be able to take a stage win in the final week. It looks really hard on paper and that’s my big motivation.”
2018 Vuelta a Espana Stage 1 Brief Results:
- Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) 09:39
- Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) +0:06
- Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) +0:07
- Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) +0:17
- Dylan van Baarle (Team Sky) +0:20
Points Classification
- Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) 25
- Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) 20
- Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) 16
- Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) 14
- Dylan van Baarle (Team Sky) 12
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