Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma) won the opening stage of the 2020 Vuelta a Espana, out-sprinting the other GC favourites to the famous finish-line at the summit of Alto de Arrate.
The 2020 Vuelta a Espana wasted no time in putting the GC riders on show, with today’s tough climbing stage already revealing who the favourites are for the overall title.
Without a clear GC favourite, our NTT Pro Cycling riders were to follow the wheels today and guide Gino Mader and Stefan de Bod into the tough final 25km of the race to see what the grand tour debutants could do.
de Bod was unfortunate to suffer from a crash earlier in the stage but he recovered well to make it back into the peloton before the finale.
On the final ascent though, it was Mader who stuck with the favourites longest, before pacing his effort well to the line and came home in 21st on the stage, and 3rd in the young riders classification. A decent start to his first ever grand tour.
All other NTT Pro Cycling riders also made it to the finish safely, on what was a tough but also tricky day of racing, given the strong winds that blew throughout the stage.