photo credits @ La Vuelta
Brandon McNulty claimed stage 1 of the Vuelta a España today, after the American rider won the opening individual time trial.
The UAE Team Emirates rider finished the flat 12km stage between Lisbon and Oeiras in 12 minutes 35 seconds to edge out Czech rider Mathias Vacek.
Belgian Wout van Aert had looked on course to win the stage at one point, but he had to settle for third in the standings after he finished three seconds behind McNulty, who went out as the penultimate rider.
Meanwhile, Josh Tarling placed sixth, just eight seconds adrift of the stage winner, as the 20-year-old made his Grand Tour debut
McNulty said: “I don’t know if I expected to win. I knew if something crazy happened I could, so I guess something crazy happened.
“I was hoping for it, but this is hard to believe for me. I had super good legs, and I’ve been feeling really good in training.”
Last year’s Vuelta winner Sepp Kuss finished over half a minute down on three-time champion Primoz Roglic who was eighth fastest and 17 seconds behind McNulty.
McNulty will get to wear the red jersey in Sunday’s 194km second stage from Cascais to Ourem.
Race Highlights
Most of the main contenders looked to head out late, though there were clusters of strength in the middle and early on as well Edoardo Affini was 22nd down the ramp, setting a strong time at the intermediate split and then becoming the first rider to go under 13 minutes.
For more than two hours the Italian was in the hotseat, watching some big hitters fall flat. Tarling was the first rider to go faster at the time check but could not hold the pace to the line. Instead, it was Vacek, the 150th rider down the ramp, who eventually dislodged Affini from the leader’s chair. Riding his first Grand Tour, he did not just sneak under the best time but went six seconds clear.
With around half an hour left of the stage, there was a good chance the time would hold up. When Stefan Kung (Groupama FDJ) could not do it, and with no one faster at halfway, Vacek was looking confident.
McNulty reached the check just behind, while Wout van Aert was a single second up. Those positions were reversed by the line as the Belgian slipped back while the American kept up the power to double his tally of Grand Tour stages by two seconds.
Elsewhere, among the expected overall contenders, incumbent champion Kuss lost 53 seconds in a disappointing return to the scene of his biggest triumph, with former team-mate and three-time champion Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe) finishing 17 seconds down in eighth. Joao Almeida (UAE Emirates) was just two seconds down on Roglic, 15 ahead of his teammate Adam Yates.
A heartbroken Tarling admitted afterward he felt like a “brick” as he failed to live up to favorite status, finishing sixth, eight seconds down on McNulty. Tarling was cruelly denied a medal at the recent Paris Olympics after suffering a mechanical in the ITT, ultimately losing out on the podium by just two seconds, and again fell short as he missed out on a maiden Grand Tour win.
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