Fast, flat and windy time trial gets Vuelta a España underway

The Vuelta a España began on Saturday afternoon in Lisbon, Portugal, where the riders were faced with a 12-kilometre time trial along the coast. With only a few rolling roads and very little elevation throughout, it would be one for the specialists against the clock who could put the power down but also battle the swirling and every changing wind conditions during the day.

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL set out to get round the course in a good way, with the team all setting respectable efforts against the clock over the route. However, with this being his first tilt at GC in a Grand Tour, Max Poole left it all out there on the course. Facing some incredibly strong wind gusts, the young rider paced his effort well. Keeping something in reserve for the final third, he pushed as hard as he could on the pedals and crossed the line with a time of 13 minutes and 12 seconds; placing him firmly in and around other potential GC contenders for the race.

Speaking after the stage Poole said: “It was pretty windy and blustery out there today, and was a hard day to start the race, with just an all-out effort basically. I think I finished the ride really well and maybe it doesn’t quite show in the results but I’m pretty pleased with how it actually went and the power I did. The ride was solid and hopefully that’s a good sign. We will know quickly how things are going on stage four, but the sprint stages beforehand are still pretty hard, so they will be grippy days and ones that you have to come through in a good way. The focus for me will be to come through them in a good way and as a team we go for it with Pavel at the finish in the sprints, before we then get to Tuesday and see how it goes on the climbs there.”

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Phil West added: “It’s always the first day when you find out where you are a little bit. Obviously we have a GC focus with Max here so it was important that he did a good TT and when I look at where we sit now at the finish, it’s in the right ball park with the other GC candidates. We maybe lost a bit of time to some guys, but gained time on others so it’s a positive start. Everyone got through safely, and it was quite a tough TT in the end with all of the wind blowing around. Tomorrow we will try and sprint with Pavel and see if we can carry on our momentum from Burgos. What we know from the Vuelta and this parcours is that there are no easy days here, but we will set up like we normally do, go through the processes and all being well we will deliver Pavel to have a go for it.”