Roglič begins Vuelta bid with TT win

Favourite puts time into GC rivals from the gun

Primoz Roglič picked up where he left off at the Vuelta an España, winning the opening time trial, pulling on the red jersey he won last year and gaining time on his main rivals in the first three days. Rein Taaramäe wrestled the lead off his shoulders when he took the win from the break on stage three, but as the Estonian is not a threat overall, it left Roglič in the perfect position. “Rein took the jersey, and that’s good for us,” Roglič said after the race’s first summit finish on Monday. “After working on my time trial I can still climb, so it’s nice to see!”

RogliÄ admitted he’d taken a short break after winning the Olympic time trial in Tokyo to let the win soak in. “First celebrating and trying to enjoy what we achieved, then the last few days and weeks I was trying to be as good as possible,” he said of his lead up to the Vuelta.

Riding a new gold-liveried Cervélo P5, the Slovenian won the opening 7.1km stage, beating Astana’s Alex Aranburu by six seconds. Britain’s Adam Yates was 20 seconds behind but then lost more time on stage two after a crash at 4.3km to go held him up.