2018 Vuelta a España Stage 1 Results & Recap
Stage 1 of the 2018 Vuelta a España is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Dennis wins Malaga time trial\nBy Clara Beard
Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing Team) won the opening stage of the Vuelta a Espana in commanding fashion. The Australian time trial champ flew through the technical eight kilometre course to finish with a time of 9:39, six seconds faster than Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky). European champion Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Soudal), finished third, just one second slower than the Sky rider.
“Kwiatkowski put on a lot of pressure. Honestly, I was hoping that the times would be a little bit slow, with obviously less stress going into,” Dennis said at the press conference. “But, in the end, you cannot do what you can’t do. I just put everything out there and hope for a win. I knew that, basically, the race finished at the top of the hill. From there, you only can lose one or two seconds. I was just thinking about trying to get a stage win at La Vuelta. It is special to win an individual stage here in La Vuelta, especially after what I did in the Giro. It’s nice to get the first stage again and I think, from now on, it would have been pretty cool to get the red. Kwiatkowski is flying and he might end up taking the jersey tomorrow.”
During the evening time trial, Dylan Van Baarle (Team Sky) was the first rider to sit in the hot seat, and he stayed there for almost two hours as riders set off on course, but couldn’t best his sub 10 minute time. Nelson Oliveira (Movistar Team) eventually beat him with a time of 9’56”.
From there, Kwiatkowski topped Oliveria and shortly after, Dennis coasted a cross the finish line a handful of seconds faster.
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