2 months ago
16 
SPAIN: Defending champion Primoz Roglic took the early lead in the Vuelta by winning the opening stage, a 173-km trek from Irun as the race got off to an explosive start on Tuesday.
The Slovenian, who lost the Tour de France yellow jersey on the last competitive stage last month, powered away from a small group of top contenders with one km to go in the Alto de Arrate.
Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz took second place one second behind as his Ineos-Grenadiers teammate and four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome was dropped even before the final ascent, a 5.3km effort at an average gradient of 7.7%, just like France’s Thibaut Pinot.
Ireland’s Dan Martin was third, also one second off the pace after Roglic’s Jumbo-Visma team mate American Sepp Kuss blew the peloton apart in the last climb with a brutal acceleration.
The Vuelta’s flat start in the Netherlands was scrapped as the race was rescheduled amid the COVID-19 crisis and there was no stand-off in Tuesday’s first stage.
Former Giro champion Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands started as Jumbo-Visma’s co-leader but he was unable to follow when Kuss made his move and crossed the line 51 seconds behind Roglic. – Reuters
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