Valencia’19 Stage 1 Time Trial Photo Gallery

Valencia TT Photo Gallery: The pro peloton kicked off the first stage race on the European main-land of 2019 on Wednesday with a 10.2 kilometre time trial in the Spanish town of Orihuela. PEZ-man Alastair Hamilton made the trip south to catch the action and get some early season sunburn.

Stage of one of the 2019 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana couldn’t have been more different from 2018 start. Last year there was snow on the road and the temperature was hardly over zero, but Alicante town of Orihuela was basking in near 30ºC without a cloud in sight.

The cutting of the first start tape

Apart from the lack of parking, Orihuela is a nice little place for a time trial. The Tour of Valencia held a team time trial between the beach resort and the main town back in 2017. That year it was mostly flat, this year used a flat loop before a steep climb of just under 1 kilometre to the Seminary of San Miguel.

Tony Martin in his new Jumbo-Visma kit

The finsh area was small and you couldn’t see any of the race from there, but the walk up was well worth it. Here are a few of the near three hundred photos I took:

First rider down the ramp – Stefano Oldani (Kometa Cycling Team) 120th at 1:20

The kids had the day off school

The Whiskeria was busy enough

The Astana mechanic had a spare bike at the start of the climb

That’s the finish up there

A bit of advice

Not a bad view from up there

Only one road up and one down

Not far to the finish

Always good to see Amy from CCC – Alessandro De Marchi was in the early hot seat

Not much room at the top and you couldn’t see much of the race

The last bend before the finish line

Astana’s Hugo Houle – 23rd at 28 seconds

It wasn’t really Ian Stannard’s day

Someone wasn’t enjoying the ride

Yes, the orange of Euskadi is back

Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) was the only rider to go under 13 minutes for the win

47th place for Luis León Sanchez (Astana) at 43 seconds – Maybe waiting for the hard stages

Canadian time trial champion – Sven Tuft of Rally UHC Cycling at just over 1 minute

Sven has fans everywhere

Niki Terpstra now with Direct Energie finished 31 seconds slower than Boasson Hagen

Harry Tanfield put in a great ride to finish 12th, just ahead of Tour winner Geraint Thomas. Tanfield took the first ‘Best Young Rider’ jersey

Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates) was 10th at 19 seconds – He will be looking at Friday’s mountainous stage 3

German time trial champion, Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) took 3rd place at 7 seconds

A very good ride from Astana’s Ion Izagirre – 5 seconds down in 2nd place

Not a great ride from Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) – 43rd place at 41 seconds

CCC’s Greg Van Avermaet will be training for the Classics – 30 seconds down on Boasson Hagen

2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas (Sky) wasn’t far off the mark at 20 seconds

You could hear the approach of Alejandro Valverde from the crowd. Many hoped to see him in the rainbow jersey, but of course he has to wear his Movistar kit in a time trial

8th place at 14 seconds might see the World champion in the leaders jersey by the end of the week

You can see the race report and video in EUROTRASH Thursday HERE.

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana Stage 1 Result:
1. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data at 12:55
2. Ion Izagirre Insausti (Spa) Astana at 0:05
3. Tony Martin (Ger) Jumbo-Visma at 0:07
4. Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-Merida at 0:08
5. Jos van Emden (Ned) Jumbo-Visma at 0:10
6. Nelson Oliveira (Por) Movistar at 0:11
7. Pello Bilbao Lopez de Armentia (Spa) Astana at 0:12
8. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar at 0:14
9. Jan Tratnik (Slo) Bahrain-Merida at 0:18
10. Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates at 0:19.