2021 Vuelta a España Stage 1 Live Coverage
Welcome to our live coverage of Stage 1 of the 2021 Vuelta a España! Our live time-trial times and commentary are below, followed by a preview of the technical aspects of the route.
Course Preview
La Vuelta opens with an individual time trial of 7.1 kilometer. The city circuit in Burgos climbs to the ruined castle in the first 2.5 kilometres before a descent takes the riders to the last 4 kilometres on the flat.
La Vuelta a España starts from inside the Burgos Cathedral and the riders exit the Gothic building through its main entrance to enter a first ascent at approximately 5%. A short drop and the route continues on another climb. This one is 1.2 kilometres long and climbs at 7.1% to the Castle of Burgos. The first part is particulary steep, while there’s also a cobbled sector of 200 metres.
The only time check is at the top.
Following a descent the last 3.5 kilometres of the time trial are played out on the flat. The race returns to the Cathedral for a finish outside of the building.
It’s the first ever Grand Salida in Burgos, although La Vuelta visited the town in northern Spain dozens of times. Burgos hosted fifteen stage starts and seventeen stage finishes. The last time was six years ago, when the 17th stage saw Tom Dumoulin storm into the red jersey with a commanding ITT victory on an undulating parcours of 38.7 kilometres.
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