Lorenzo Milesi, who recently won the U23 ITT World Championships, again found himself atop a big stage, winning the opening TT of the 2023 Vuelta a Espana. The Italian youngster is the first leader of the 78th edition of the Spanish Grand Tour after he led Team DSM-Firmenich to victory in the opening team time-trial.
The German squad went early, as thunder roared over Barcelona, and nobody ever managed to overthrow them. Movistar came the closest, only trailing by half a second, while Remco Evenepoel’s Soudal Quick-Step lost 6’’ and Jumbo-Visma 32’’.
The handout photos from the race did not begin to capture the horrible conditions experienced by the riders. By the time the last teams took to the road, the skies were almost completely darkened with rain and the roads were flooding.
The first team to start was Caja Rural Seguros RGA, at 18:55, followed by DSM-Firmenich 4 minutes later, and then Lidl-Trek at 19:03. Under the rainy skies, DSM-Firmenich set the first strong reference: 17’30’’ to cover the 14.8km.
Arkea-Samsic had a very different experience when Hugo Hofstetter’s wheels slipped in the final kilometres, taking down his leader Kevin Vauquelin, who drops over a minute. Bahrain Victorious (+10’’), EF Education-EasyPost (+6’’) and then Groupama-FDJ (+6’’) were more successful but DSM-Firmenich held on to the best time.
The final kilometre was particularly wet, which led to crashes for Maurice Ballerstedt (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla). Laurens De Plus goes down earlier in the race and Ineos Grenadiers finish with a time of 17’50’’ (+20’’).
Jumbo-Visma also struggled, trailing by 28’’ after 9.6km and eventually dropping 32’’ on the line. Enric Mas’ Movistar come much closer, only dropping half a second on the line! But when Remco Evenepoel’s Soudal Quick-Step finish with a gap of 6’’, DSM-Firmenich seal the win and Lorenzo Milesi takes La Roja.
Stage 1 Brief Results:
- Team DSM-Firmenich 17’30”
- Movistar Team +0″
- EF Education-EasyPost +6″
- Soudal Quick-Step +6″
- Groupama-FDJ +6″
- Bahrain Victorious +10″
- Astana Qazaqstan Team +17″
- INEOS Grenadiers +20″
- Cofidis +22″
- BORA-hansgrohe +28″
General Classification After Stage 1:
- Lorenzo Milesi (ITA, Team DSM-Firmenich) 17’30”
- David Max Poole (GBR, Team DSM-Firmenich) +0″
- Romain Bardet (FRA, Team DSM-Firmenich) +0″
- Sean Flynn (GBR, Team DSM-Firmenich) +0″
- Edgar Oscar Onley (GBR, Team DSM-Firmenich) +0″
- Christopher Hamilton (AUS, Team DSM-Firmenich) +0″
- Enric Mas (ESP, Movistar) +0″
- Einer Augusto Rubio Reyes (COL, Movistar) +0″
- Nelson Oliveira (POR, Movistar) +0″
- Ivan Garcia Cortina (ESP, Movistar) +0″
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