McNulty takes Vuelta lead

MADRID — American Brandon McNulty won a thrilling opening stage time trial at the Vuelta a Espana by two seconds.

The flat 12km blast around Lisbon was won by UAE Team Emirates rider McNulty in 12 minutes 35 seconds with Czech Mathias Vacek second in 12:37.

Italian early starter Edoardo Affino had led for a long time but ended up fifth, eight seconds down.

Belgium’s Wout van Aert (Team Visma-Lease) looked like topping the time sheets but had to settle for third in the standings, three seconds behind McNulty.

Defending champion Sepp Kuss finished 53 seconds behind, losing time to other general classification favourites including three-times winner Primoz Roglic who was eighth — 17 seconds slower than McNulty.

McNulty will get to wear the red jersey in the hilly 194km second stage from Cascais to Ourem.

“I don’t know if I expected to win. I knew if something crazy happened I could, so I guess something crazy happened,” McNulty, who could be a GC threat, said according to Reuters.

“I was hoping for it, but this is hard to believe for me. I had super good legs, and I’ve been feeling really good in training.”

The crazy thing McNulty referred to was the wind, which howled off the Atlantic coast and into the riders’ sides. The American time-trial champion dealt with it well, but thought that in the end it was the legs that mattered.

“Twelve minutes – there’s not really much pacing. I just felt good and went as hard as I could. I knew with the split I was good, so then I just had to hold on and give everything I had,” he said.

Further into the race, McNulty’s role will be to support UAE Team Emirates’ two GC leaders in the mountains, Joao Almeida and Adam Yates.

McNulty finished fifth in the men’s individual time trial at the Paris Olympics.

The coastal wind played a pivotal role as riders went through a 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) speedy route near the mouth of the Tajo River, going from Lisbon to Oeiras.

“The wind was really strong but we knew that so I was counting with it,” Vacek said. “I think it was the same for everybody. It was about pure power and I gave it everything. The pacing plan was like one minute slower. We can be really, really satisfied.”

Defending Vuelta champion Sepp Kuss was 53 seconds slower than McNulty, which was good only for 62nd place.

Primoz Roglic, a three-time Vuelta winner who switched from Team Visma-Lease a Bike to Team Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe, was eighth fastest, 17 seconds behind McNulty.

The first three stages of this year´s Vuelta are taking place in Portugal. The three-week race includes eight mountain stages and two individual time-trial stages. Only one stage will be flat.

Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar is not participating in the Vuelta, the last Grand Tour race of the season. Also absent is Jonas Vingegaard, the second-place finisher at the Tour de France, as well as Remco Evenepoel, who completed the podium in France.

Almeida was just two seconds behind Roglic, while Yates finished in 29th, 34 seconds off the pace.

“It’s nice to be in the lead, and I’ll enjoy it for the few days we have. But it’s no secret or surprise that we have two very strong leaders in Joao and Adam, so I’ll be all in for them, and I’ll just do what I can to help them.”

The Portuguese Gran Salida of the 2024 Vuelta a España took place over a short coastline blast from Lisbon to Oeiras.

As well as being an opportunity for time triallists to claim the first Maillot Rojo, stage one was also an indicator of form for the men who hope to wear that jersey in Madrid in three weeks’ time.

Howling winds from the vast Atlantic Ocean buffeted the riders as they made their individual efforts, picking up as the race wore on, potentially handing advantage to the earlier starters.

Visma-Lease a Bike’s Italian powerhouse Edoardo Affini set the early benchmark of 12:43 as the favourites waited in the wings.

Lidl-Trek’s young Czech rouleur Mathias Vacek set a storming time to beat Tarling’s intermediate mark by two seconds, extending that lead to six by the end to set a time that looked like it could challenge for the win.

It was a course that suited Stefan Kung well, but he came up a few seconds short. Minutes later, as the final few riders flew towards Oeiras, McNulty set a blistering time to overtake Vacek having been a second behind him at halfway.

Wout van Aert was the last man down the ramp as the sun began to lower. He was the only man to beat Vacek at the intermediate split, shaving a second off and looking like he was heading for red. The Belgian faded slightly as McNulty stayed strong, finishing three seconds down.