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BMC wins Vuelta a España team time trial opener, Dennis in red

American team exorcises Sanchez's ghost with victory in Nîmes

August 19, 2017
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Team chrono aces BMC earned the best time in Saturday’s Nîmes, France team time trial to kick off the 72nd Vuelta a España, putting Australian Rohan Dennis in the first red leader’s jersey. Like Bardiani-CSF just before this year’s Giro d’Italia and Trek-Segafredo just before July’s Tour de France, BMC had a rider slated for the Vuelta test positive for a banned substance two days ago. Sammy Sanchez tested positive for growth hormone-releasing peptide GHRP-2. The triumph goes a long way to relieve the American team.


The squads faced a 13.7-km route with a little Cat. 3 climb in the middle, and some very tricky bends in the final third.


Irish team Aqua Blue Sport was making history as the first from the Emerald Isle to contest a Grand Tour, but brightly-hued Colombian was also a debutante. The fuschia-clad nontet was the first to start, rolling out of a bullfighting ring to clock 16:51, a time Lotto-Soudal eclipsed immediately with 16:22.
https://twitter.com/AquaBlueSport/status/898934799276154880

Michael Woods’ Cannondale might have been a little disappointed with 16:44, but then again it’s a very young team with no real GC aspirations. Bora-Hansgrohe’s split time at the top of the climb showed it was going well on course, and 16:19 confirmed Rafal Majka and friends’ quality. Sunweb wasn’t having another German-registered team get the better of it, so Warren Barguil, Wilco Kelderman and teammates came in 15-seconds faster than Bora.


GC contender Fabia Aru saw his Astana outfit only make 16:39, while Vincenzo Nibali’s Bahrain-Merida had a slightly better showing with 16:29.

Quick Step tipped Sunweb off the hotbench after posting 16:04. BMC was out on course looking likely to be the first team to break the sixteen-minute mark. It succeeded, hitting 15:58.

Svein Tuft helped to put the Yates twins and Esteban Chaves into good GC position as Orica-Scott marked the fourth best time. Sky knocked Orica down to fifth with a time of 16:07. Romain Bardet’s GC chances suffered a blow when AG2R finished 46-seconds down, with the same time as Cannondale.

The GC Favourites Picture
Froome 16:07
Yates, Yates, Chaves +0:08
Nibali +0:22
Zakarin +0:24
Contador +0:26
Aru +0:32
Bardet +0:37


2017 Vuelta a España Stage 1
1) BMC 15:58
2) Quick Step +0:06
3) Sunweb s.t.

2017 Vuelta a España GC
1) Rohan Dennis (Australia/BMC) 15:58
2) Daniel Oss (Italy/BMC) s.t.
3) Nicolas Roche (Ireland/BMC) s.t.
34) Svein Tuft (Canada/Orica-Scott) +0:23
102) Michael Woods (Canada/Cannondale-Drapac) +0:46
105) Hugo Houle (Canada/AG2R) s.t.

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