Arrate (Spain) (AFP)

One month after his bitter second place in the Tour de France and after winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, winner of the Tour of Spain 2019 seized on Tuesday the first red jersey of the Tour of Spain 2020 thanks to to an attack placed in the last kilometer.

The Slovenian rider of the Jumbo-Visma team, stripped of the yellow jersey the day before the arrival in Paris in the Tour de France, beat Richard Carapaz and Dan Martin in the Basque Country.

As on the roads of the Tour de France, Jumbo delivered a show of force: its Slovenian leader still had two teammates (Sepp Kuss and George Bennett) in the group of nine from which Roglic emerged to win with his usual + kick + final past the red flame.

On slopes with an average of 7%, Roglic abandoned a leading group of eight riders formed four kilometers from the line, after an attack by his teammate Kuss who surprised the peloton.

"It's nice to win, I'm very happy. My teammates showed again that they are very strong, they worked well all day, and then I was able to win. It's a great start" , rejoiced the Slovenian (30 years), saluting the performance in particular of the American Sepp Kuss.

“The stage was pretty tough, and on the last climb we were four or five guys, and we were all in pain. We have some amazing guys on the team, like Sepp, who is very good,” Roglic thanked. the arrival.

- "I want to take advantage" -

The arrival at the top of a first category pass from the first stage made it possible to create the first entry gaps.

Tom Dumoulin, announced as the co-leader of Roglic at Jumbo, dropped nearly a minute in the final climb, the viola of Arrate (5.3 km at 7.7% gradient).

Among the other losers of this first day: the French David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) with nearly two and a half minutes like the Colombian Daniel Martinez (Education First), victim of a fall, but also the young Russian Alexander Vlasov (Astana ) which is already four and a half minutes late.

As for the Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), he can already give up any ambition in the general classification.

With nearly ten minutes of disbursement, he almost gave up as much time as the returning Chris Froome (11 minutes) for his last race with Ineos.

In the general classification, Roglic precedes the Ecuadorian leader of Ineos, Carapaz, by 5 seconds, thanks to bonuses, and the Irishman Dan Martin (Israel SN) by 7 seconds.

"It's a weird season, with a lot of stress, so I just want to enjoy, race in these beautiful places," said Roglic at the top of Arrate.

On Wednesday, the second stage of the Vuelta will take the riders from Pamplona to Lekunberri in Navarre (151 km), including two 3rd category passes and a 1st category pass on the route.

© 2020 AFP