DISCUSSION Vuelta a España Stage 5 | Should team time trials be limited to the opening stage?

The fifth stage of the Vuelta a España featured a flat team time trial, an unconventional discipline that is barely seen at the World Tour level.

Lotto were the first team to commence, setting a solid time that teams such as Jayco or Bahrain, on paper better prepared for a TTT than Lotto, couldn’t beat. Lidl -Trek was the first team amongst the favourites to start the TT effort, with a very strong lineup that smashed the best time, even if they lost Carlos Verona due to a crash.

After them, Ineos did a powerful first half of the TTT and took the lead at the intermediate sections. However, they collapsed in the second half and were not able to outperform Lidl – Trek, finishing fifth overall.

Red Bull - Bora and Israel were also threatening Lidl – Trek’s reign, but Matteo Sobrero’s nasty crash on the one hand and a pro-Palestine demonstration on the other threw away their options to fight for the stage win.

The two main favourites were UAE and Visma and they proved why, finishing first and second respectively. Despite never leading at the intermediate points, both teams finished off really strong and topped the classification, with Lidl – Trek being third.

Race leader David Gaudu and his team Groupama FDJ were nowhere near the top teams, losing 24 seconds to the winner and losing the red jersey, which is back on Vingegaard’s shoulders.

Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

All as expected I would say. UAE had the upper hand on Visma because they had an extra man and the truth is that the super teams are always going to be on top in the TTT's because of the money they invest in the discipline.

Long gone are the days where a specialist like Cancellara could almost single-handedly carry a team to victory in such a stage. Vingegaard returns to red as expected and nothing in the race dynamic has really changed I would say.

The team time trial was certainly spectacular, and it might have been even better had it lasted a little longer. The obvious question everyone is asking is what happened to Visma in the first and second intermediate sections. In the final stretch, however, they flew, especially considering that UAE managed to gain 14 seconds on Lidl-Trek there.

Visma then outperformed UAE by another five seconds in that same section, riding nearly 20 seconds faster than Lidl-Trek! Was it a tactical choice? Or did something happen at the start? We’ll find out soon enough.

Although Rúben Silva (maybe that’s why he’s the best at previews) was right in picking UAE as the favorite, honestly I didn’t expect Ayuso, Almeida and company to beat teams that I thought were stronger in the time trial, like Visma, Lidl-Trek or INEOS.

I think the wind hurt Lidl, who were overtaken by several squads in the final part. The race is looking beautiful right before the arrival of the high mountains, with Vingegaard ahead of Gianetti and Matxín’s two leaders.

UAE and Visma are just ahead of the competition, and we could see that today. In the case of Visma, it was even more impressive, because they were missing one rider (Axel Zingle abandoned a couple of days ago), so they were at a huge disadvantage.

Would the final outcome have been different had he started the stage? We will never know, but that disadvantage could have been easily avoided with one simple action: put the team time trial the first stage. That way you make sure every team will be in the same conditions, and no one will be missing some pieces, given that every team is complete the first day.

Today, five teams were unfairly affected: Visma, Movistar, Soudal, Groupama and Burgos were all missing one rider. In a discipline that is a team effort, as its name indicates, having one more or one less rider definitely has an impact. Why didn’t they choose the first stage for this instead of the fifth?

It is not a la Vuelta team time trial without bizarre incidents going on. Two years ago it was the infamous TTT finishing in the dark, today it was protesters blocking Israel – Premier Tech, besides of a random passerby trying to cross the street when Groupama – FDJ were coming. We don’t get bored during TTTs that is for sure.

Leaving that aside, the final results were the expected. The top five were the strongest teams on paper and the time differences were minimal, leaving the GC very open. One team that surprised me today was Movistar, because they didn’t come to the Vuelta with GC aspirations and their lineup is not the best it could be, missing time trial firepower. Still, they managed to finish 6th only 17 seconds slower than UAE.

Groupama – FDJ also did a solid time trial, losing just 24 seconds to UAE. Gaudu remains sixth 16 with 16 seconds lost to Vingegaard, I am really curious to see whether he will carry his so far excellent shape during the next weeks. He might be an underdog to fight at least for the podium.

On the other hand, Jayco Alula disappointed me. They have commonly put up strong performances in team time trials, but today it was not their day, losing 44 seconds. A major setback for Ben O’Connor, who finished in second place last year and came for the GC again.