The 59th edition of the Vuelta a Pais Vasco commenced today with an almost 12 km-long individual time trial around Zumarraga. It also marked the first time that the race has featured a time trial as an opening stage.
The first part of the parcours was not particularly demanding. However, 3km before the finish, the riders had to traverse a 2.3km-long ascent with an average gradient of almost 10 per cent.
Enrico Mas led the standings for quite some time, having completed the course in 17:34 minutes. He was ultimately bested by his teammate Max Schachmann. Schachmann was able to put in a very strong performance and he bettered the time of his teammate by 19 seconds. He reached the finish in 17:10 minutes, and in the end, that was enough to seal the stage victory, and he now also holds the yellow jersey of the leader in the general classification.
“This is my third win in this season alone, and it’s really something special. It was a difficult time trial, and I didn’t completely know if I could pull it off, particularly in such a strong field which also contains riders of the caliber of Alaphilippe,” said Max Schachmann after the race. “We’ve come to this race with a very strong team, and therefore we have several options. And of course we have come here with big ambitions and we also want to achieve more in this race.”
Stage 1 Brief Results:
- Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) 17’10”
- Daniel Martínez (EF Education First) at 9″
- Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) at 10″
- Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 12″
- Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) at 16″
General Classification After Stage 1:
- Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) 17’10”
- Daniel Martínez (EF Education First) at 9″
- Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) at 10″
- Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 12″
- Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) at 16″
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