La Vuelta a Espana 2020 Stage 1 As it happened
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ByTom Owen
Updated 20/10/2020 at 16:32 GMT
La Vuelta a Espana 2020 - Follow live text commentary on Stage 1 of La Vuelta as the Spanish Grand Tour gets off to an explosive start on day one with no less than four categorised climbs, including a cat one in Arrate. All eyes are on Chris Froome in his final Grand Tour for Ineos Grenadiers. Follow live on Eurosport 2 or uninterrupted on eurosport.co.uk and the Eurosport app.
Primoz Roglic of Slovenia and Team Jumbo - Visma / Marc Soler Gimenez of Spain and Movistar Team / Enric Mas Nicolau of Spain and Movistar Team / during the 75th Tour of Spain 2020, Stage 1 a 173km stage from Irun to Eibar - Alto de Arrate 570m/ La Vuelta
Image credit: Getty Images
Top five
1. Roglic (Jumbo Visma)
2. Carapaz (Ineos)
3. D. Martin (Israel StartUp Nation)
4. Chaves (Mitchelton Scott)
5. Großschartner (Bora Hansgrohe)
2. Carapaz (Ineos)
3. D. Martin (Israel StartUp Nation)
4. Chaves (Mitchelton Scott)
5. Großschartner (Bora Hansgrohe)
Honourable mention to Hugh Carthy who attacked earliest in the final, and wound up with the last place from that lead group, seventh.
Primoz Roglic wins the stage!
The Slovenian just had so much more speed there than everyone else, he absolutely blitzed away from the elite group with 500m to go and they couldn't get close.
Once again, that win was built on the foundation of his team's effort.
Carthy goes again!
Big acceleration from the Prestonian.
2km to go – Does Roglic have it?
We saw this a lot earlier in the season. Jumbo Visma using their domestiques to tenderise the opposition, then Roglic with the seated uphill super-blast.
Can they pull it off again for yet another stage win?
The road levels out here quite a bit so the gradients won't be so severe as they have been until the finish.
3km to go – Kuss is killin' it
Jumbo have three riders in this elite group with the young American at the front. Everyone else is solo.
Felix Grosschartner is there for Bora too. Things have lulled a little here.
Carthy attacks!
Audacious stuff from the Lancastrian.
Kuss follows him and Roglic, Dan Martin and Enric Mas are there too. Valverde is dropped and riding with Dumoulin.
Carapaz is still there too!
5km to go – Brutal stuff from Ineos
They are not here to mess around, it's clear, they want to make this hurty.
One domestique remainng for Carapaz, now, but they are showing no signs of slowing down.
Estaban Chaves is prominently places, as are Roglic, Dumoulin and Kuss.
Dani Martinez, who crashed hard earlier, is losing ground rapidly. Did Hugh Carthy just become EF Pro Cycling's GC leader?
Woods incident
Here's that moment earlier when the Canadian crashed at the roadside. We've seen no sign of him since and the pace is infernal.
10km to go – That descent took no time at all...
Chris Froome is just struggling to catch onto the back of the peloton at the moment, he's about 100m off the back. Cruelly, the ones leading the bunch are his Ineos teammates, and at this point there's no question that they're trying to slow things down – they're hammering it.
15km to go – Madre mia!
This stage has gone absolutely bananas. Froome is continuing to struggle, Thibaut Pinot is slipping down the bunch. Dan Martin is looking very strong and has called his team into action to set the pace. Jumbo are looming ominously at the front of the bunch.
They are just about to pass the summit of the penultimate climb, they then have a short whizzy descent and a brutal last ascent at double-digit inclines.
Don't go anywhere!
Froome dropped!
That's a big blow. If he's losing ground at this point then he could be out of the GC before it's even begun. The rangy, unmistakeable figure or the four-time Tour champ began to slip backwards as we hit our penultimate climb.
He has fought hard to get back onto the peloton while his teammates on Ineos lead the peloton. They may be keeping the pace low to allow him to regain contact.
20km to go – Woods in the wall
The Canadian rider from EF Pro Cycling will lose GC time here, if not see his tilt at the red jersey come to a premature end.
As the race wound through a tight pinchpoint, it appears he crashed into an uncovered roadside bollard and he's in pain on the side of the road.
At the front the race is blowing apart, as a rider from Caja Rural attacks. Ion Izagirre on home Basque roads is not going to be involved in the final of this stage.
25km to go – Harsh!
Jauregui is caught before the final category three climb, so he won't bag those points after all. The peloton will now contest a sprint, because cycling, and then do the penultimate climb, before the all-out slugfest of the finale.
30km to go – Jauregui ploughs on solo
The Frenchman will bag his final three-pointer of the day alone, as the rest of the breakaway just sort of gives up. It wasn't like he attacked, they just got tired of him haranguing them and one-by-one floated back to the peloton.
The peloton is heading up a highway at the moment, one of the widest roads I've ever seen in a European bike race. As such, almost every team is simultaneously at the front of the peloton.
35km to go - Breakaway breakdown
The leaders managed to bring back Cavagna, but since regrouping they have resoundingly failed to cooperate. You would imagine their days in the lead of this race are strictly numbered.
Meanwhile, here's some heart-warming waterproof coat content. Or HeartWarmerProofCoatent as we call it in my house.
The TGV has left the station!
I hate to say I told you so, but with a little under 50km to go Remi Cavagna, the man they call 'the TGV from Clermont Ferrand' because he's fast and comes from the city most closely associated with France's high-speed locomotives, has done an attack.
50km to go – Jauregui leads the virtual KOM
He's got six points so far. There are 13 left in the stage, but ten of those are at the stage finish. Even if Jauregui wins the next climb, he'll still need to score at least 2 points at the finish to claim a jersey.
60km to go – Tensions are rising
After a sinuous and slippery descent in which Jetse Bol managed to distance the rest of the breakaway, the leading quintet are back and working together nicely. They're not, however, getting any leeway at all from the teams bossing the peloton, Movistar and Jumbo-Visma.
The gap is 1'27", as it has been for about an hour.
75km to go – Juaregui vs Bol
These two are the ones interested in KOM points today, and it's the AG2R rider, Jauregui, who pips the Dutchman, Bol. for the max points.
The final climb of the day is a cat 1, so it should outweigh the cumulative points on offer for the day's first climb. Unless one of them wins the stage, I find it hard to see either Jauregui or Bol taking the climber's jersey tonight.
Two abandons so far
Matthias Frank and Ilan Van Wilder have quit the race already today. Perplexing, as there haven't been any severe crashes as far as I am aware.
80km to go – Great stat from Carlton Kirby
On the live commentary, Carlton has just dropped in the factoid that all but one member of Sunweb's team at La Vuelta qualify for the young rider's jersey. Remarkable!
85km to go – No let-up from Movistar
They are grinding hard into this gap now and it's reduced considerably. It'd be cruel not to let the escapees at least try and get up the Alto de Arrate ahead.
Also very cool to see is Burgos BH making their presence felt near the front of the bunch. It's a bit weird to see them effectively help to chase their own teammate, Jetse Bol, up in the break. Maybe they are trying to disrupt things? Or perhaps they have more faith in someone else in their squad for a stage win today?
95km to go – Gritty conditions
When one pictures La Vuelta one usually imagines blistering hot roads through the southern regions of Murcia, Valencia and Andalucia, but this year the race is staying exclusively in the north of the country. That means sharp climbs, lush green vistas and plenty of rain – which we're seeing already on this stage.
Dani Martinez was looking like being a great protagonist in the high mountains, but he's just had a bad crash. He is back on his bike, but he looked very sore when he was hobbling around immediately after. Let's hope he's at his explosive best later in the race. He has two domestiques helping him get back into contention now.
115km to go – A day for Cavagna?
Of the riders in the break, the two that seem most capable of delivering a victory today are Wellens and Cavagna.
You might remember Cavagna can go uphill pretty darn quick when he wants to from the Tour de France final time trial earlier this year. He also has a Vuelta stage win under his belt already after attacking solo into Toledo last season. That was a great race for the Frenchman, who also bagged a couple of podium places.
120km to go – Full gas
The peloton is travelling at an average speed of 46.4km/h at the moment and, terrifyingly, that only seems to be increasing.
With over an hour of racing done, the break have a gap 2'36", which is coming down a little bit more than one might have expected at this relatively early point in the stage.
It's Movistar and Jumbo-Visma leading the chase – two teams with likely winners for today in the shape of Alejandro Valverde and Primoz Roglic.
150km to go – Wait, this isn't Italy...
The gap of the breakaway is 3'14" and Jumbo-Visma are leading the bunch. That might just be it for the next couple of hours.
If you're not sated by following just one Grand Tour stage, Felix Lowe is doing live updates from the Poor Man's Vuelta at the link below...
As the Giro enters its final week, things are beautifully poised – with Britain's Tao Geoghegan Hart in with a strong shout of a podium finish.
And would you look at that...
Tim Wellens has jumped over to the break along with Jetse Bol of Burgos BH.
160km to go – Wellens backing breakaway
The Belgian breakaway specialist has come here straight from the Tour of Flanders on Sunday and spoke this morning about fancying the escape's chances on stage 1.
At the first time of asking it doesn't appear as though he has managed to get himself involved in the early move. Still plenty of tarmac to cover though.
Up the road at the moment are Remi Cavagna, Jasha Sutterlin and Quentin Jauregui.
170km to go – From the gun
I can't recall a tougher opening week of a Grand Tour than the one we have here in Spain in 2020.
There's no easing into things with a TT or a couple of nice sprint stages, it's a GC fight right from the off.
The first half of today is pretty much flat, but then in the back end of the stage we have three cat 3 climbs, followed by an unholy ramp up to the Alto de Arrate. It's typically Basque in its characteristics, lots of double-digit gradients and a technical narrow approach. Should create some early fireworks.
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We've just seen the first attempt at a breakaway being brought back by the peloton. Burgos BH look like they are keen to get someone in the move.
Safety first at La Vuelta
The Spanish Grand Tour has a reputation for being a little 'chaotic', at times. That's partly why we love it so much.
However, early indicators about its approach to Covid-19 prevention measures are good.
Buenas tardes!
And welcome to La Vuelta.
This feels like a pretty significant moment in a chaotic and stressful year, as cycling's best and final Grand Tour rolls through the neutral zone ahead of stage 1.
IS CHRIS FROOME A CONTENDER FOR LA VUELTA?
Bradley Wiggins and Sean Kelly do not believe that Chris Froome has the form to triumph at the Vuelta this year in their preview on The Bradley Wiggins Show. Wiggins and Kelly have given their predictions for the final Grand Tour of the year, and the pair have highlighted the riders they think could challenge in Spain.
While Richard Carapaz, Primoz Roglic and Tom Dumoulin all get mentioned as likely contenders, the pair do not see Froome emerging victorious in his final Grand Tour in an Ineos jersey.
"I think Carapaz and Roglic," Wiggins said on the podcast when asked for his tips of who could triumph in Spain.
"I don't know about Roglic, I mean he was already going well before the Tour but he held his form. I actually think Tom Dumoulin could be good.
“I'd like to see Chris Froome [win the Vuelta] but I just don't think he has got the form, by the looks of it."
HOW TO WATCH LA VUELTA LIVE – TV & LIVE STREAMING
The Vuelta a Espana is live on Eurosport, eurosport.co.uk and the Eurosport App.
Each day Eurosport.co.uk will stream uninterrupted coverage of each stage. We will also have rolling coverage online on the website and our social channels.
And don't forget, we are bringing you daily podcasts from the Bradley Wiggins Show - check in with your podcast platform of choice each evening.
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