Hello and welcome to live coverage of the 2015 Vuelta a Espana! It's the opening team time trial from Puerto Banus to Marbella, a controversial 7.4km ride along the Costa del Sol that features sections on a wooden raised platform and a sandy dirt track.

Slovakia's Peter Velits will be in the red jersey tomorrow after crossing the line in pole position for BMC. But no times will count for the general classification - only the team classification.

BMC are the winners of this opening TTT with a time of 8:10 - one second ahead of Tinkoff-Saxo and two seconds ahead of Orica-GreenEdge.

Katusha are the last team to cross the line, 54 seconds down on BMC, to bring this rather surreal neutralised TTT to a close.

Sky's Geraint Thomas: "Big disappointment really. Everyone was looking forward to a good TTT but when the organisers say it's not going to be for GC then it's pretty obvious that we're going to take it safe. There was gravel and sand on the corners and we were not going to risk it. I'm looking forward to the race - it's the first time I've done the Vuelta, Froomey is motivated, Nico (Roche) too."

Sky come home more than a minute down on the leaders, BMC. Their time of 9:21 would be a concern was this a competitive TTT but as it is, Froome will not be trailing Van Garderen by 1:11 tonight.

Chris Froome, carrying a bit more weight than usual, is on the back for Sky. He'll be in two minds as to whether to tide hard or take it easy - remember, this TTT has been neutralised owing to safety concerns regarding the myriad surface changes on the narrow coastal course, so not everyone is going full gas.

The Katusha team of Joaquim Rodriguez are the next to roll down the ramp - and could this be the last chance Purito has to win a Grand Tour?

Movistar come home 24 seconds down so it's looking good fro BMC and Velits.

Team Sky roll down the ramp and they are in early disarray with two riders - including Chris Froome - riding clear, and Vasil Kiryienka being momentarily distanced on the pier.

Tejay Van Garderen: "We're happy. The race is not over yet but we beat a lot of good teams and we're confident we can take it to the end. It was a tricky course and we were on the fence as to whether we should take it hard, but we're the world champions and now it looks like Peter Velits may be in the red jersey."

The Movistar team of Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde roll down the ramp on the stone pier at Puerto Banus. For them, this will be an exercise of keeping their men out of trouble rather than vying for the red jersey.

Great job by BMC! They've cracked it by under a second to send Tinkoff-Saxo packing from the finish zone. And it looked like it was Peter Velits in pole position and so he could well be in red tomorrow...

Astana on course now, with their intriguing selection of lining up a trio of leaders in Vincenzo Nibali, Fabio Aru and Mikel Landa. It'll be interesting to see how that one pans out...

The BMC team of Tejay Van Garderen are the latest team to roll down the ramp on the Puerto Banus marina.

Lotto-Soudal are 17 seconds down. It's worth adding that while these times will not count for the GC they will count for the team classification standings, which may have been while there was such a brouhaha with Etixx.

It's worth noting that Peter Sagan was the rider who led Tinkoff-Saxo over the line so he could well be in red tomorrow, which given tomorrow's summit finish will be very welcome.

Etixx-QuickStep cross the line for fourth place, nine seconds down on Tinkoff-Saxo, before starting to bicker and in-fight. It seems Niki Terpstra isn't too happy about the effort made by some of his team-mates in this, a neutralised team time trial...

The Lotto-Soudal team of Adam Hansen are on course now. The Australian veteran is now riding his 13th consecutive Grand Tour, an astonishing achievement (especially given his bad fall early in July's Tour, which dislocated his shoulder and made riding excruciatingly painful for quite some time).

Over a minute off the pace for the Giant-Alpecin team of John Degenkolb. A reminder for those just joining us: these times do not count for the GC, just for the prestige of the victory and the red jersey for tomorrow.

Wow, that was unexpected: Tinkoff-Saxo have dethroned Gerrans and GreenEdge by half a second. We have a new leader...