Vuelta a Espana 2015: Stage 1 Results, Standings and Highlights

BMC Racing narrowly beat out Orica GreenEdge and Tinkoff-Saxo to win the first stage of the 2015 Vuelta a Espana, a team time trial toward Marbella.

The American side also won the team time trial in this year's Tour de France, so the result really wasn't surprising. With the results of the stage not counting toward the general classification, none of the favourites took any risks on Saturday.

Here are the results from the first stage of this year's Vuelta:

The Vuelta has always separated itself from the other Grand Tours by doing things a bit differently, such as adding the most insane climb the peloton has ever seen to Saturday's opening time trial, which effectively took place on a beach.

Plenty of riders and pundits spent the past week complaining about the course for Stage 1, which led the teams over sandy patches, wooden boards and some kind of plastic tiles, and to prove he wasn't overreacting, Team Sky's Nicolas Roche posted this image via Twitter:

Team-mate and Tour de France winner Chris Froome did the same:

The organisation responded to the criticism by announcing the results from Saturday's stage would not count toward the general classification, so the teams had the choice of riding for the stage win or just taking their sweet time to finish the course, with no repercussions.

As a result, fans were in for one of the oddest team time trials they have ever seen. Team Europcar didn't even try to hide the fact it wasn't racing for the win, for instance, taking well over 10 minutes to make it to Marbella. Whether the French side did so in protest or simply couldn't be bothered remains up for debate.

Fortunately, plenty of teams did try their best, as evidenced by Niki Terpstra's fury at his team-mates when Etixx-Quick Step dropped its pace in the final meters, via ByTheMin Cycling:

BMC Racing looked the smoothest out of all of the top teams, narrowly beating pre-race favourites Orica GreenEdge and Tinkoff-Saxo by a second. Team Sky looked like a disorganised unit from the very start, with one rider breaking free early, and just two kilometers into the stage, it decided to drop the pace as well to avoid major incidents.

With the sun starting to set, large parts of the track were covered in shade, adding yet another challenge for the peloton. Katusha looked very strong early in its ride but, like Sky, decided to play it safe once the sandy stretches kicked in.

As reported by Cycling News' live blog of the stage, Tejay van Garderen told reporters there was never any question he and his BMC team-mates were going for the win: "When we’re the world team time-trial champs, we have to do the stripes proud. It’s a tricky course, but in the end, the guys stepped up and did us proud."

Fans will learn absolutely nothing from the result of Saturday's opening stage other than the fact the Vuelta organisers really couldn't care less about the conventional way of running a Grand Tour. This year's race should at the very least be entertaining because of it.

In keeping with the Vuelta's tendency to be different from the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France, the peloton will immediately encounter its very first uphill finish on Sunday. The Alto de la Mesa is a typical Spanish climb—short but very steep—and will immediately have devastating effects on the peloton.

The favourites for the general classification may choose to exercise patience, given it's so early into this year's Vuelta, so expect some of the specialists to try their luck early and deliver some fireworks.

Keep an eye on Froome, Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde, however. All three had to work hard in this year's Tour de France and enter the Vuelta with tired legs. The difficult recovery process between Grand Tours is the main reason why it's so rare to see the same rider win two in a single year, and Sunday's stage will give us some insight into whether the favourites are ready.  

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