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This year’s cycling season has already seen some fantastic highlights: the classic races of the spring or the grand tours, The Giro d’Italia in May the Tour de France in July and the World Championships in August in Glasgow. The third grand tour of the year is La Vuelta a Espana which also signifies the end of summer.
The 2023 edition of La Vuelta goes from Barcelona to Madrid, from the capital of Catalonia, Barcelona, to the capital of Spain and covers more than 3,000 kilometres in three weeks. The city of Barcelona is a beacon of La Vuelta – the race has been there over a hundred times, either as a start or finish town. The Tour de France has also stopped there on two occasions and the World Championships were also held there, already.
Stage 1 Team Time Trial in Barcelona
Contents
The first stage of the 2023 Vuelta edition was a team time trial over 14,8 kilometres around the city of Barcelona. All 22 teams started with a gap of four minutes between them.
The story of the day was the weather. Rain made the roads slippery and caused a good number of crashes. Caution was thus the rule for the stage for the top teams.
DSM-Firmenich take the stage, Milesi in the Red Jersey
The first surprise was sprung by one of the teams starting early in the race. The Team DSM-Firmenich went off at 18:59 at were second at the intermediate checkpoint but came in first in the finish and held on to the first spot for a long time. Their winning time was 17 minutes and 30 seconds.
Their rider Lorenzo Milesi is the first rider to wear the red Jersey. Little surprisingly, the first six places were occupied by riders from DSM-Firmenich. It was close as Movistar came close but it was DSM-Firmenich who prevailed and took home the victory. They largely benefitted from deteriorating weather conditions as the rain increased during the race, forcing teams to slow down and avoiding any risks.
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๐๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐ฌ๐ฆ – ๐๐ข๐ซ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ข๐๐ก
โฑStage 1โฃ… ๐ฎ๐น Lorenzo Milesi serรก el primer lรญder de #LaVuelta23
… ๐ฎ๐น Lorenzo Milesi will be the first leader of #LaVuelta23. pic.twitter.com/r6nbGmANYF— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) August 26, 2023
Rain and then darkness
As the stage wore on, there was another problem for the riders: darkness. As Soudal Quick-Step started, the light was already fading rapidly. Add in the rain and it was hell on the road. It is therefore surprising that not more riders crashed.
Vuelta a Espana – Stage 1 overall standings
After a rather controversial stage that was beset by rainfall towards the end, Team DSM-Firmenich were the fastest and profited from the weather while the favourite teams rode with safety on their minds.
To the surprise of many, Team DSM-Firmenich won the stage ahead of Movistar who had the same time and EF Education-Easypost in third place. The stage results:
1. Team DSM-Firmenich 17’30”
2. Movistar Team +0″
3. EF Education-Easypost +6″
4. Soudal Quick-Step +6″
5. Groupama-FDJ +6″
6. Bahrain Victorious +10″
7. Astana Qazaqstan Team +17″
8. Ineos Grenadiers +20″
9. Cofidis +22″
10. Bora-Hansgrohe +28″
Stage 1 General Classification
The general classification after stage one looks like this:
1. Lorenzo Milesi Team DSM-Firmenich 17’30”
2. David Max Poole Team DSM-Firmenich +0″
3. Romain Bardet Team DSM-Firmenich +0″
4. Sean Flynn Team DSM-Firmenich +0″
5. Edgar Oscar Onley Team DSM-Firmenich +0″
6. Christopher Hamilton Team DSM-Firmenich +0″
7. Enric Mas Movistar Team +0″
8. Einer Augusto Rubio Reyes Movistar Team +0″
9. Nelson Oliveira Movistar Team +0″
10. Ivan Garcia Cortina Movistar Team +0″
Stage 1 Youth Rankings
Since there were neither intermediate sprints nor any significant climbs, there were no points assigned in these classifications. Since this was only the first stage, this classification looks not much different from the overall standings.
1. Lorenzo Milesi Team DSM-Firmenich 17’30”
2. David Max Poole DSM-Firmenich +0″
3. Sean Flynn DSM-Firmenich +0″
4. Edgar Oscar Onley DSM-Firmenich +0″
5. Einer Augusto Rubio Reyes Movistar Team +0″
6. Stefan Bissegger EF Education-Easypost +6″
7. Marijn van der Berg EF Education-Easypost +6″
8. Andrea Piccolo EF Education-Easypost +6″
9. Diego Andres Camargo Pineda EF Education-Easypost +6″
10. Remco Evenepoel Soudal Quick-Step +6″
This is the only classification in which last year’s winner, Remco Evenepoel is among the top ten. As this was the first stage, this will change over the course of the following three weeks.
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