Vuelta a España: UAE Team Emirates Leads After Stage 1, McNulty Wins Time Trial

After Brandon McNulty took victory in the opening stage of the Vuelta a Espana on Saturday, UAE Team Emirates began their bid to win all three Grand Tours in the same season in fine style.

Starting with an individual time trial, American rider McNulty took off in the 12-kilometer run from Lisbon to Oeiras to beat Mathias Vacek by two seconds, with eventual rider Wout van Aert finishing third in a fast-paced finale.

Defending champion Seb Kuz finished half a minute behind general classification rival and three-time champion Primos Roglik, who finished eighth, 17 seconds behind McNulty’s 12min 35sec.

“I was hoping for something good today, but it’s hard to believe,” said the 26-year-old McNulty. “If something crazy happens, I know I can (do it), so I guess something crazy would have happened.”

The general classification is wide open this year, with star trio Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel not competing.

Slovenian veteran Roglic, aiming for a joint-record fourth victory, got off to a strong start as the Vuelta started in Portugal for the first time since 1997.

Portuguese rider João Almeida of UAE Team Emirates started the race to great support on home soil and finished two seconds behind Roglik.

Adam Yates, who along with Almeida carried the team’s hopes of a Grand Tour clean sweep following Pogacar’s victories at the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, finished 29th, 34 seconds behind McNulty.

Italian Wisma-Lees bike rider Edoardo Affini set the pace in 12 minutes 43 seconds, and it looked like a winning one when European time trial champion and podium favorite Josh Darling was 0.28 seconds behind.

However, Czech rider Vasek was six seconds ahead of Afini and held the lead until McNulty moved in.

“I worked hard for this, I gave everything and couldn’t have done better, I’m very happy with it,” said Lidl-Trek rider Vacek as he waited to see if he could hold on.

“The wind was really strong, but we knew that, and I think it’s the same for everyone, it’s about pure power.”

Last on the starting line, Wisma’s Van Aert went through the intermediate checkpoint but didn’t have enough in the tank to dethrone McNulty.

“I didn’t feel good, very soon it started to hurt and it was a long way to finish. The feeling was not what I expected,” said the Belgian.

Sunday’s second stage is in Portugal, taking riders 194km from Cascais to Orem.

The 79th edition of the race concludes in Madrid on September 8 after 21 stages and 3,265 km of riding.