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.

MTN come home with seven riders and set a reasonable time of 8min 40.8secs. Britain's Steve Cummings was on and off the back there.

This really is quite a bizarre spectacle, with the riders undergoing a parade which will not count. Effectively, it's all for show for the spectators, with the prestige going to the winning team, the leader of which will wear the red jersey tomorrow. Will anyone really want to take the risk?

They're off! The first team has rolled down the ramp - and it's the MTN-Qhubeka team of Louis Meintjes. They're making history - the first team in Grand Tour history to field seven African riders.

While covering the Arctic Race of Norway last week, I spoke to former Sky directeur sportive Sean Yates, now at Tinkoff-Saxo, about his thoughts on the Vuelta. Yates is tipping countryman Chris Froome to become the first rider in the modern era to win both the Tour and the Vuelta in the same season. It's been done just twice before - by Messrs Anquetil and Hinault - but that was when the Vuelta was held from late April to mid-May, and not later in August/September.

With the exception of Alberto Contador, all the big guns are here at the Vuelta with the Tour de France's top four riders - Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana, Alejandro Valverde and Vincenzo Nibali - all taking to the start. Throw in the likes of Fabio Aru, Mikel Landa, Peter Sagan, Fabian Cancellara, John Degenkolb, Domenico Pozzovivo and Tejay van Garderen, then it's a pretty stellar field for this, the third and final Grand Tour of the season.

Before we get started today it's worth mentioning that the times at the finish of this team time trial will not count for the general classification because of safety concerns regarding the varied terrain of this otherwise pan-flat race against the clock.