La Vuelta Femenina got underway late on Sunday afternoon with a 16 kilometre-long team time trial, in and around the city of Valencia. A discipline that is rarely ridden these days but has found a unique place on the calendar to start the Vuelta; the team began their effort well, rotating through as a unit. Going through the intermediate point they clocked the second fastest time at that point before fighting to the end. Ultimately once all other teams had finished, the team would end the day in ninth place – only 17 seconds behind the winners on the day and with everything still to play for in the coming stages.
Speaking at the finish Daniek Hengeveld said: “I think as a team we did a really good team time trial, but that’s also because we trained several times for it. We had a good plan and followed that well throughout the race. I felt good today and I’m happy I could lead the train off from the start and then help bring them home too. We’re only 17 seconds down from the first time so the gap for Juliette in the GC isn’t too big and we’ve got seven more days to do our best, and we’re ready for it.”