Stage 1: Ourense › Parque Nacional Castrelo de Miño – 27.8km (TTT)
The Vuelta kicks off with a team time trial, and a surprisingly unpredictable one at that. Though there are several good TT teams in the race, none of them looks particularly dominant, leaving this battle against the clock open for the taking.
There are several corners to navigate on the parcours, but the 27.8km route is a flat one that will favor the big engines.
Team Sky is my prohibitive favorite, with the talent and the motivation to come out of this with an early advantage. Led by Chris Froome and Michal Kwiatkowski, Sky has a good – if not great – squad in Spain.
Movistar should perform well for similar reasons; they too have motivation and big engines, though a number of their strongest riders against the clock aren’t making the start. Still, they should be right up there in contention.
Etixx-QuickStep has a number of Classics riders on the roster who should be able to turn a high cadence for a half hour. That makes them dangerous. BMC is another contender, always strong against the clock, though their Vuelta lineup is not exactly the TTT world champion squad.
LottoNL-Jumbo is a great candidate to surprise. The Dutch squad doesn’t have quiet the reputation of the some of the other TTT contenders, but with Jos van Emden leading the way, the squad has a nice shot to nab the stage.
VeloHuman Stage 1 Favorites
1. Team Sky | 2. Movistar | 3. Etixx-QuickStep