Vuelta skelter: Nibali in sticky team car storm

After the damp-squib that was Saturday’s neutralised team time trial, it was a relief to be served up with some drama on Sunday’s opening road stage – although try saying that to the victims of the high speed crash that ended two riders’ race and stuck a spanner in the spokes of Vincenzo Nibali’s quest for a second Vuelta win.

Without further Aru – sorry, ado – let’s take a look at who’s up and who’s down after an action-packed day in the Spanish saddle…

Two years ago Chaves, then 23, suffered a litany of injuries in a crash at the Trofeo Laigueglia that included a compound fracture to his right collarbone, fractures in his skull, ribs, cheekbone and sphenoid, a punctured lung and multiple cuts, bruises and abrasions.

Chaves made a miraculous recovery, signing for Orica-GreenEdge from Team Colombia before winning stages on the Tour of California and the Tour de Suisse. But he’s now hit the big time with his maiden Grand Tour scalp – and all this despite looking like a cherubic choir boy.

With Italians Nibali and Fabio Aru both lining up for Astana, many predicted a few leadership headaches for the boys in baby blue.

But with Nibali caught up in the big pile-up some 30km from the finish it became clear quite quickly that Astana were putting their eggs in the Sardinian’s – and not the Sicilian’s – basket.

Nibali did manage to fight back to the peloton ahead of the final climb, but the 2010 Vuelta winner inevitably suffered on the decisive ascent and is already more than a minute down on the leading big name, Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha.

More importantly, Nibali trails Aru by 51 seconds as his rotten luck in Grand Tour second stages continues this year. Still, it may make things easier for the team management…

A cheeky addition to the ‘UP’ section, this is, but the sight of Cancellara back on his bike – even if toiling at the rear of the peloton – was a welcome one.

Prior to the stage, Spartacus spoke to Cyclingnews about returning to the “pain, suffering, crashes and sickness” of the pro peloton. And although he was not caught up in that nasty incident near the end of the stage, the Swiss powerhouse found his reintegration to racing far from easy.

Indeed, only one rider finished slower than Cancellara in stage 2 – and that was veteran Paolo Tiralongo, who looked like he’d come out of 12 rounds with Mike Tyson after hitting the deck in the pile-up. Welcome back to the pain and suffering, Fab, indeed!

An early crash saw in-form Italian sprinter Matteo Pelucchi become the first rider of the 80th edition of the race to abandon.

And things did not get much better for IAM-Cycling, who saw David Tanner taken to hospital with a suspected broken pelvis after the Australian came down hard in the dramatic pile-up around 30km from the finish.

Many would have seen the irony in the Italian finding himself distanced after Katusha, Movistar and Team Sky upped the tempo following the crash that held up Nibali.

After all, Nibali himself allegedly broke one of the unwritten rules of cycling during the Tour when making the most of a mechanical suffered by race leader Chris Froome by launching an attack en route to a stage win at La Toussuire.

Having used up his team-mates, Nibali was forced to latch on to Astana’s 10th man as he sought to rejoin the peloton ahead of the final climb.

But that moment of minor drafting paled in comparison to footage that later emerged of Nibali being given, quite possibly, the longest and most blatant sticky bidon in recent memory by his Astana team car.

It’s worth remembering that Chris Froome was once kicked off the Tour de France for a similar manoeuvre involving one of the race motorbikes, while one rider last July was thrown out for being driven 100 metres…

At the time of writing, the race jurors were mulling over whether or not they should sanction Nibali for his motorised assistance. Astana's leadership issues may be even clearer come the start of Monday's stage three.

Nibali was officially expelled from the Vuelta soon after the end of stage two, as was the driver of the car, Alexander Sheffer.

A mix-up in the official start list caused confusion throughout the second stage, with riders at Lampre-Merida and MTN-Qhubeka at the centre of the furrowed brows.

When a six-man break formed early on, we were led to believe the rider in pink and purple was Przemyslaw Niemiec when in fact it was his Portuguese team-mate Nelson Oliviera.

Like Tanner, Polish veteran Niemiec was forced out of the race in that huge pile-up – although he was still listed as having finished 97th in the stage.

Even more confusing was the sight of Louis Meintjes languishing down in 185th place in the stage. Despite being part of the leading group on the final climb, the South African youngster had apparently shipped over 20 minutes in the last two kilometres.

It all became a bit clearer when Meintjes’s compatriot and team-mate Songezo Jim appeared 1 4th in the stage standings – and the pair’s positions were soon swapped once the mistake was finally uncovered.