Off the wire
• China ease past Algeria 3-0 at women's volleyball World Cup (updated)  • 1st LD-Writethru: Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei development to see marked progress  • Urgent: Britain reopens embassy in Tehran  • China ease past Algeria 3-0 at FIVB Women's World Cup  • British foreign secretary arrives in Iran to reopen embassy  • 70 pct DPRK submarines undetected with high-level talks underway: Seoul  • Evidence reveals Japanese invaders' looting of China's resources  • Feature: Chicago Chinese holds concert to mark 70th anniversary of victory of China's anti-Japanese war  • WWII war criminal confession proves Japan's massacre of Chinese civilians  • China advocates practical cooperation between LatAm, East Asia  
You are here: 　 Home

Veltis in red as Vuelta gets off to false start

Xinhua, August 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

The opening stage of the Vuelta de Espana (Tour of Spain) cycle race on Saturday ended up with the leader of the BMC racing team, Peter Veltis, wearing the leader's red jersey, but with no actual time differences between the competing riders.

There was a sense of anti-climax over the 7.4 kilometer team time trial between Puerto Banus and Marbella in the wake of Friday's decision to annul time differences following a stream of complaints from teams and riders about the dangers in a 4 kilometer section which over packed sand.

Most considered that the risks inherent in riding over sand over a narrow course were too great and as a result teams opted for safety first, rather than riding at full speed over the section although each team seemed to adapt a different strategy for a day when the race could not be won, but it could most certainly be lost.

BMC, who have an excellent team for a team time trial and who won a similar, all be it longer stage at the start of this year's Tour de France clearly gave their all on the day to finish with a time of 8 minutes and 10 seconds just one second ahead of the Tinkoff Saxo Bank team, but other teams clearly adapted a safety first attitude.

The Sky team of Tour winner, Chris Froome offered clear evidence of that as they finished 1 minute and 11 seconds behind BMC, when they had finished the Tour stage 77 hundreds of a second behind.

Movistar, containing Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde, also put safety first, ending 24 seconds behind, but the clearest example of the 'safety first' ethos came from Europcar, who finished in a discreet time of 10.25, ceding almost 20 seconds a kilometer to the winners, but as Quintana after the stage commented "the stage was a bit embarrassing and I think it showed a lack of respect to the riders. Fortunately the best thing happened and the times won't count."

They will count on Sunday when the Vuelta has its first hilltop finish on the sharp climb to the scenic 'Caminito del Rey." Enditem