Hello and welcome to live coverage of the opening stage of the Vuelta a Espana - a 13.4km pan-flat but quite technical team time trial from the saltflats of Torrevieja to the centre of Torrevieja.

But the story of the day is this crash for the Jumbo-Visma team, whose leaders Primoz Roglic and Steven Kruijswijk both went down to concede 40 seconds to today's winners.

So, that's it, an opening day TTT victory for Astana. They win in a time of 14'51" with QuickStep second at two seconds and Sunweb third at five seconds.

Five Movistar riders - including Valverde and Quintana - come home 16 seconds down for seventh place.

Movistar were 13 seconds down at the split and so they shouldn't trouble Astana here... they're into the final kilometre now.

Heartbreak for Deceuninck-QuickStep who miss out by just two seconds! They probably would have won had they not been disrupted by that neutral car.

Chaos at the finish as Jakobsen overcooks a corner and goes into the barriers.

Near miss! QuickStep almost plough into the back of a neutral service car which had stupidly stopped beyond a blind corner to give one of the Jumbo riders a new bike.

Jumbo-Visma cross the line 40 seconds down so they limited their losses but are the big losers today.

We're hearing that UAE Team Emirates also crashed on that corner - although we haven't seen any images of that one.

Jumbo-Visma were seven seconds down at the first check just ahead of the crash. Martin, Bennett and Gesink were the only riders not to go down - with Roglic bashing his left hip quite badly.

There was a wet patch of road just before that crash which took out more than half the Jumbo-Visma team. They have regrouped but Roglic and Kruijswijk will lose a shed load of time today.

DISASTER FOR JUMBO-VISMA! Four or five of their riders go down on a tight corner - including Roglic and Kruijswijk!

Down the salt ramp goes Movistar, the final of the 22 teams. In the absence of last year's winner Simon Yates, it's the world champion Alejandro Valverde who wears the number one dossard - although today he's in his trade kit and not the rainbow stripes.

Bora have just shod two riders - Shane Archbold and Pawel Poljanski. The Pole manages to bridge back over, but Austraian Archbold, the track specialist, doesn't have the legs.

Deceuninck-QuickStep are the penultimate team to get going. They don't really have a GC man in their team and instead will be hunting stages through Philippe Gilbert and Zdenek Stybar, with Fabio Jakobsen for the sprints and young Briton James Knox a possible outsider for a top 20.

Lotto Soudal are 19 seconds down at the finish.

Favourites Jumbo-Visma get going. Their road captains are Tony Martin and Robert Gesink, with Primoz Roglic leader and the likes of George Bennett and Steven Kruijswijk in support. And it's a terrible start with Sep Kuss off the back from the outset - the American youngster must have a mechanical problem. Either that or he's suffering with some kind of illness...

Astana are approaching the finish now. Lopez is back in there as they ride to the line with six men. They were still up at the most recent live check, but it's a very technical approach. And it is Lopez who leads them home - five seconds clear of Sunweb! New leaders in the house.

UAE Team Emirates (who have Fabio Aru and Tadej Pogacar as leaders and Fernando Gaviria for the sprints) are on course, with Bora-Hansgrohe (with Davide Formolo and Rafal Majka leading, and Sam Bennett for sprints) starting soon after. Just three more now.