Garmin have crashed in three out of the last four Grand Tour team time trials. Dan Martin, whose season was built around the Giro d’Italia, saw about five minutes of that three-week race after slipping on a manhole cover and breaking his collarbone on the very first day. Here at the Vuelta, he at least made it to the end of the stage, even if he is already 41 seconds down.
Team Sky were pretty crap as well, so Chris Froome’s 27 seconds down. It probably wouldn’t be so bad if the team that won weren’t Movistar, which boasts two overall contenders – Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde.
The biggest loser was Thibaut Pinot. The Frenchman, who finished third in this year’s Tour de France, couldn’t finish with the rest of his team and lost 1m34s. I’ve heard that he’s sick, so he’s probably out of contention already unless he can recovery quickly while they’re just doing sprint stages.
Stage two
Sprint stage. I can’t be bothered linking to the profile.
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