Stage 1

The road

At the start

Benidorm, and the Angliru is back

The 66th Vuelta opens with a 13.5-kilometre team time trial along the Benidorm seafront, and what sits behind it is the most mountainous route in years: Sierra Nevada on day four, the 23-percent wall at Valdepeñas de Jaén, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Peña Cabarga, the Basque Country for the first time in 33 years, and on stage fifteen the Angliru. Tonight, somebody wears red for a quarter of an hour's work.

How it was won

1. 18 km to go

   Sky come apart on the beachfront

   The Benidorm seafront is technical and very fast, and Team Sky lose riders on it until only four are left on the road. Xavier Zandio drags himself back on and the five of them ride the rest of it out of the argument.

2. 2At the line

   Leopard Trek, 16:30

   Cancellara drives them in the rainbow bands and Leopard Trek set a time nobody gets near. Jakob Fuglsang takes the first red jersey of his career; Wiggins starts his Vuelta 42 seconds down before a single road stage has been ridden.

The result