Arrate (Spain) (AFP)
The Slovenian Primoz Roglic (30), winner of the Tour of Spain 2019, won in the first stage of the Vuelta 2020 between Irun and Arrate on Tuesday and seized the red jersey thanks to an attack placed in the last mile.
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.
Just a month after his bitter second place, Roglic who had won in the meantime in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège Monument, precedes the Ecuadorian leader Ineos by 5 seconds in the general classification, thanks to bonuses, and the Irishman Dan Martin (Israel SN) from 7.
The arrival at the top from the first stage made it possible to make 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.
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.
© 2020 AFP